Mirrors
by Lumikuu
Summary: Reina saved Kharl from death. From then on, they were friends. But when Kharl decides to work under a dark alchemist, he becomes someone Reina can't recognize. Fic revolves around Kharl and his transformation from childhood to adulthood all in Reina's POV
1. Smile

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**Author's Notes: **'lo. After nearly two years of this first chapter just sitting here, all crap and short, I've decided to fix it. It's now slightly longer and a little more satisfying. My old writing is so crap, yeck. 'nyway this fic contains my OC, Reina, and it's in her POV unless stated otherwise. Enjoy. I think.

**dîSC¿åim£®**

I do not own any characters from Dragon Knights, seeing as they belong to Mineko Ohkami. I am not profiting from any of this, except the own improvement of my skill and being able to read wonderful crit from my reviewers. :P

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Oº°'¨Mi®rØR§¨'°ºO

By lUmìKüu

_Chapter 1 -_

§MiL€

**.:oOo:.**

**This is my story. **

**My story that revolves around the Renkin Wizard whom I knew since we were children. No one else has the privilege of saying that but me. Because I knew him. He was a brother, my best friend, and he might of been more. **

**I am Reina Kashara, foster daughter of Ergo and Ulia Kashara, or something like that. (I've never been good at introductions.)**

**I am not a princess. I am not a noble. I'm not wealthy, even today.**

**I was a slave girl. I never had the desire to be a princess, nor a noble. But I do admit to wishing to at least have some pocket money to spend on my favorite sweets in the pastry shop…Anyway back on track. I suppose before we get on to the real story, I'll tell you a bit about how I was when I first met him. Then the story will flow easier. **

**At least it won't feel like a complete stranger is spilling her life story to you.**

**But even if I were a complete stranger, you'd listen anyway, wouldn't you? Because my life revolved around the One Winged Angel, as they call him now. Because I knew him. Because I know him.**

**Because I know **_**exactly **_**who he is.**

**My lady was wife to the prison keeper. The man's job was to feed and watch over the prisoner's till they were hung. Of course, as soon as I was given to them and was old enough to speak properly, they gave me the job of doing it. (so the old man could spend his time and wages drinking in the pub, instead of the gallows.)**

**I remember little of my past. Where I came from, who my parents were, the days before I arrived in this dreary, disease-ridden village. I didn't bother to ask anymore. My foster parents just glared and told me to shut up and continue working.**

**They didn't have much time for me. My Lady was too busy trying to keep her reputation of a refined, educated housewife. She couldn't dirty her dainty hands with the gruel they dish out to prisoners. She couldn't even look at a dying person without running out of the room, a hanky over her nose, claiming to have a pressing appointment. She didn't clean (I did that.) She just sat, looked pretty, and maybe went over to friend's houses to knit, or whatever it is that ladies do.**

**My Master was never at home. He might as well had slept in the pub and got it over with, seeing as he practically lived there. When he did come home, he was short tempered and left minutes later, stalking out the front door.**

**Basically is was all me. Cleaning, cooking, feeding, collecting the wages, sweeping, managing prisoners…I could go on for hours about what I used to do to keep the house presentable for guest, and to escape a beating…**

**Most of the time, I worked in the gallows. In the dungeon just next to the public execution house. It was dank, and humid down there. The stagnant smell of death always clung to the air, and it used to make my nose twitch in annoyance. It was all very depressing, and if I had been any older, I probably would have been one morbid kid. But you know how young children are. They could be standing in a battle field covered in mangled and broken bodies and the child would never fully understand the enormity of the situation. Ah, infantile innocence, those were the days…I really hated that place though..even today I look back and think of the dungeons, which were very like my own personal prison, and I frown in disparagement. **

**But that's where I met him, wasn't it? So I suppose if I must feel grateful for something in the dungeons, it's that it was the meeting place. Not a very cheerful place to meet someone who's life would forever be entwined around your own, but hey, that's fate for you. **

**The memory is crystal clear in my mind. I can still see everything as it was…I can still remember, perfectly, the day I met **_**him**_**…**

--x-†-x--

A door slammed, echoing in the dark , dreary silence of the dungeon. The stagnant smell of death was in the air, and made my nose twitch with annoyance.

I continued to ladle steaming porridge into flat, misshapen bowls, most of which were nicked and chipped. There were only four prisoners down in the cells at the moment so I only filled four. I poured as much soup as I could, stopping when I thought it would spill if I tried to walk with it. I knew they were all going to die, but that didn't mean they couldn't have a decent meal before they met the noose…That is if you could consider the mush I was ordered to give out as "decent food" in the first place. (To me it looked like gray sludge. I almost felt bad giving it to pigs, let alone prisoners.) But somehow I suspected it was cleaner and better than what most of the prisoners had dug up in the streets.

I placed all four bowls on the beat-up tray and brought left the dungeon's kitchen through a doorway. I followed the stone wall to the main room. It was dark, and smelled something awful but I steeled myself and continued on to the first cell, wedged in one of the oddly shaped crevices in the stone.

First I checked if the prisoner was still alive, it was basic routine.

If the prisoner was dead, I'd tell the executioner. He'd come down, confirm, and get some men to haul the body away though I'm sure none of the bodies taken from these cells have ever been buried. They probably were just chucked in the river.

If the prisoner was alive, he got his food and he lived to count down to the day when he'd stand before the noose and the jeers and calls of the crowd so eager to watch him hang.

I squinted through the darkness at a man slumped against the opposite wall, unmoving.

Water dripped from the ceiling into one of the bowls as I kicked the bars (my hands were occupied).

"'Lo? You still alive?" I called to the man who twitched and turned his gaunt face to me. Hunger was written all over his face. Hunger and desperation.

That was normal.

I took a bowl, careful not to spill, and slid it through the small opening at the foot of the door.

"Your favorite, gruel." I said, trying to add a little humor to all the depression around me. It was a bad joke, and the man's dirty look as he scrambled towards the food, confirmed that.

I sighed and moved on to the next cell. The woman inside had heard me coming and was already gripping the bars, waiting with a starved face for me.

I said nothing. The sight was sad.

I had barely finished slipping the bowl through the opening before she grabbed it away fiercely and had begun to eat.

The man in the third cell was dead. I had expected this, he had had a terrible cough when they brought him in.

His dead body did not shock me. Though I was a child, I had seen so much of this, in the streets as much as the dungeons.

It was normal, in a twisted way.

I had just finished pushing the bowl through the fourth's cell opening and was halfway back to the door to the kitchens to put the tray back and clean up when I heard a commotion near the stairs that lead out to the street in the opposite direction.

Turning around, I dusted off my itchy brown dress and head towards the source of the noise, curiosity getting the best of me. I could see a few guards circled around something that was blocked from my view. They were laughing boisterously and one of the spear-wielding men kicked at it savagely.

Flung by the force of the guard's kick, a boy slammed against the stone wall. I quickened my pace when I saw him. He couldn't have been much older than me and I could see blood trickling down his face. Another guard was moving in for another attack but I called to him angrily.

"What exactly do you think you're doing?" My angry voice echoed through the room and the guards stopped abruptly, turning to face me.

"Reina, z'at you?" called one of them. Though it was too dark to see his face, I knew it was Tobias. He was one of the Baron's guards. He was fairly young to be serving, but he was strong and fairly good looking. He was known for his sharp tongue and hard hand when he had a little too much to drink.

"Tobias, I'm going to remind you and your lardy friends again that it is your job to bring the prisoner here, not to beat them up in the process, you great lump." I hissed, pushing past him and going to the boy, who was sagging against the wall. He was okay, but his lip was bloody and he was muddy like hell.

I got back up and Tobias tugged my brown hair playfully.

"Come on, Reina, loosen up. The little brat got what he deserved. Tried stealing from Jirl's bread shop." He jerked his head towards one of the other guards with him. "Ha, the fool. Of all the bakeries, he went and stole from the one who belonged to a Baron's guard. The little f-"

"Lovely. Listen, your job here is quite done. I'd appreciate it if you took your leave now." I said acidly.

"Ah what cheek, 'course I always liked that about you. How old are you today then, Reina?"

"I'm eight." I hissed.

"Ah, too young to be married off then." He said as walked away, laughing his booming laugh. His friends joined in and their laughter echoed off the damp walls as they climbed the steps and exited the dungeon.

I frowned. Turning back to the boy my expression of displeasure changed into that of concern.

"Hey." I said softly, putting my hand on his shoulder. His head snapped up, but did not turn towards me. He stared at the opposite wall.

"You…ok?" I asked, helping him to his feet. He wobbled unsteadily, and clutched his stomach with one chained hand. "Ah, is that where he kicked you? Gods, he could have really hurt you…Are you sure you're ok? Your lip is bleeding." I informed him.

Using the same hand, he wiped hastily at his mouth and winced, darting back to grab his abdomen. He still hadn't looked at me.

I studied him. He had grayish dirty hair that lay flat on his head and over his eyes. His clothes were rags and he looked like he had rolled around in a mud puddle.

A regular street urchin, just trying to survive, I deducted. Recalling Tobias's comment on the bread store, I furrowed my eyebrows sadly.

It was not a crime to be hungry. I didn't think it fair to be hung just for trying to steal bread. Everyone was hungry in these times. The poor boy just had the misfortune of being caught.

I took the keys from the rope around my waist and led him to his cell.

"You'll be in this one, then." I said slowly and awkwardly. No matter how many times I done it, it still felt awkward leading prisoners into their final "home" before they were hauled off to the noose.

The boy seemed to except his fate well, as he just walked into the cell without a fuss and I closed the door and locked it.

"My name is Reina. I'll be bringing your meal shortly…If you want it?" I said, changing my well practiced line into a question.

The boy nodded shortly, staring into corner of the cell. Something in his face brightened slightly. I could tell he hadn't had anything to eat for days.

"Right, I'll be right back then." I turned and headed back to where I had put down the tray on the ground. There was that fourth bowl for the dead man in cell three. I picked it up and brought it back to the boy, slipping it through the opening.

He took it carefully and looked at it suspiciously.

"I know it looks like week old vomit, but it's filling." I offered, with a shrug, then I let out a small gasp. "Oh right, I need your name" I said, taking out a battered little book from the only pocket my dress had. It was the prisoner inventory.

He didn't look at me but stared at the corner again, bowl still in his hands. He opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again. It seemed like he was searching for his name, as if he'd forgotten it.

"K..Kharl." He mumbled, but it was clear enough for me to understand. The name he had spoken seemed entirely foreign to him, it looked like it had been along time since those words had left his mouth.

"Right." I said, scribbling that down under the last name in the book. I closed it and dropped it back in my pocket.

"You should eat that now." I said pointing to the porridge in his hands, "While it's still hot, cuz it doesn't taste as bad as it does cold."

He still wasn't looking at me but I saw a very small, shy smile cross his face for a moment or two. It seemed very out of place in the prison, but it also seemed to brighten everything momentarily.

And though I was standing in a dungeon where condemned prisoners were waiting to die, suddenly, I didn't feel so dispirited.

It was like a cloudy and downcast day and the sun just decided to make a brief surprise appearance through a gap in the clouds before it disappeared again, hidden by gray.

It eased me ever so slightly, and hesitantly…I smiled back.

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**Author's Notes: **

Finally. A better, updated first chapter. I know first impressions are everything, after all.

Read on and review, if you're kind.


	2. Too beautiful to waste

**.:oOo:.**

**Author's Notes:** Back again, i think this is longer than the last, so you angry reviewers out there dont maul me.

**Important:** This Fic contains my OC ,Reina, and it is her point of view, unless stated otherwise.

**DiScLaMeR**

Don't touch him

He's all mine

I love Kharl!

If you do.

I'll snarl

and rip you to shreds.

SO WHAT IF HE DOSENT BELONG TO ME?.

**.:oOo:.**

**Mirrors**

By Kharl Fanatic aka Karasu

_Chapter 2 -_

Too beautiful to waste

**.:oOo:.**

I woke the next day to my mistress , screaming at me.

"Get up you lazy fool!" she yelled, kicking me in the ribs. I felt all the air escape from my lungs and then quickly return. I sat up. As quickly as she had entered my small room (Its actually a closet, but my mistress likes lying to her self) she was gone. Dwindling in her little slave's "room" was unbearable to her. I touched my ribs gingerly, a sharp pain shot through my body, I winced and stood up. I looked around at my living space. Gray peeling walls surrounded me, a box provided storage to the little things I owned. An old scratchy blanket and a not-to-soft pillow sat in the corner.

Ah, my humble adobe.

I left the hut and went down to the prisons and got the food cart. I made my daily rounds and parked the cart to be filled for the next day. On the way back up to the surface, I glanced inside Kharl's cell.

Kharl was on the floor, his white hair matted in dirt and dust, his clothing caked with blood and grime. Grabbing his cell key from its holder on the wall, I jammed it into the hole and threw open the door. At Kharl's side, I examined him. his face had a gash above his eyebrow and blood ran freely down his neck and onto his ragged clothing. The rest of him seemed fine, I shook him gently, and slowly, his eyes opened. It seemed like time stopped. As his eyelids parted, to reveal them a vibrant violet. I was sucked in, swimming, No, drowning in them. I hadn't notice his eyes before but they seemed so bright in the darkness of his cell. He blinked.

Time resumed itself.

"Reina?" he asked squinting through the darkness.

"Yeah, its me." I said, I did not ask how he came to be in the state he was in, instead I asked "Can you get up?"

Kharl groaned.

"Come on, up" I pulled him to his feet and he staggered nearly running into the cell door. "Lean on me" I instructed "I'm getting you out of here."

There was no chance I was going to let these eyes fade in the somber, life-sucking darkness of the gallows. They were just too beautiful to waste.

**.:oOo:.**

Kharl waited watched me as I got a basin of warm water and soaked his shirt inside of it, then filled the large wooden tub with more hot water, I retrieved an almost threadbare towel, (It was the best I had) and told Kharl this was his bath, and he was to wash himself. I hurried inside and got a bar of soap, a shirt and pants,( all my clothes were tailored for boys) and my needle and thread. Kharl called me from outside and I rushed to him as fast as I could without dropping anything. He was already in the neck deep tub of steamy water.

"I have the soap." I said throwing it at him. He caught it swiftly with one hand and began scrubbing his back. I sunk down at the base of the tub and began sowing the holes of Kharl's shirt together.

"Its this your home?" he asked

"Yes, though it really isn't mine." I said , pulling the needle to me and back trough the cloth.

"How so?"

"I...I was given to my Mistress and Master as a daughter by the reverend of this village, who found me in the forest as a baby. At the beginning, the mistress and the Master were nice, but now they treat me as a servant. I do almost everything for them now." I added sourly. He slapshed around a bit and then said to me.

"Why don't you just run away?"

"Because..." I stopped, I never thought about that, and disobidiance had a high price in the master and mistress's home. " I never actually thought about it." I answered. " 'sides where would I go? What would I eat, where would I sleep?"

"Sounds to me that anywhere is better than here."

"Maybe..." I said wistfully. A blue butterfly fluttered past and I suddenly remembered why he was here. "What happened to you?"

"Oh, It was my cellmate's time to go, so the guards came in and of course used me as they're toy punching bag." I knew Kharl clenched his fist. "If only I were stronger."

Suddenly he leaned over the side of the tub, the water on his hair dripped on me.

"You're not taking me back ..._there, _are you?" he asked his eyes violet eyes clouded.

"No! I mean, of course not, I hate that place as much as you do." I said looking up at him. He sighed of relief and sunk back down into the water with a _slush, slush._

Silence covered us like a thick blanket I pricked my finger, a small bead of red blood formed, and slid gracefully down my index finger and dropped onto the grass. I blinked, and examined to wound. There was none. I frowned and stared at my finger closely. There was no trace of me ever pricking myself. Maybe I had been daydreaming, but still, what an odd daydream. It had'nt happened, i decided, and finished sewing kharl's shirt.

I lifted it and surveyed my work, the stitches were even and barely noticeable. I threw it into the basin of warm water and got up.

"Kharl, I have to finish my chores, the mistress and master will be back before dusk. Your clothes are hanging on the tree branch over there." I said turning 'round the corner of the hut. I waved and he waved back. I took two steps and Kharl called me back. I poked my head around the corner. It was a funny sight, Kharl's head just reaching over the top of the tub.

"Thank you..." he said quietly. I stopped and then gave him a small smile.

"No problem."

**.:oOo:.**

**Author's Notes: **Yeesh, i dont like it. Remember my 3 review policy!

(¯·..·R€îñã·..·´¯)

.·´¯·- W¡ñg€Ð $øùL -·´¯·.

**Review Corner:**

To Mjw  
Heya bestest bud, I typed this on FF net so YOU couldnt see it, because it does not include you Arwen or Hikari, sry. Anyway, yeah I hope you dont kill me for this chapter because it is terrible.

To Arwen  
Actually, I was thinking about quitting this fanfic because you and Mjw found it, dont ask why, because I myself do not know, all I know is that its personal. But, MAYBE I will continue. I dont know.

To Neith4  
Thanks, you're so sweet, but yes, I tried to do what you said, and put more background into this chapter, do you think its ok?


	3. The Chases

**.:oOo:.**

**Author's Notes:** Heya, happy day, i got a new reviewer! YAY! eats muffin Dont ask

Oh, yes i changed my to Reina, not Kharl Fanatic, I shall miss that dear Nicky. :sob:

**Important:** Reina's POV (point of view) **REINA IS NOW 13, KHARL IS 16**

**DiScLaMeR**

You all know what goes here.

Right?

**.:oOo:.**

**Mirrors**

By Kharl Fanatic aka Reina

_Chapter 3 -_

The chase(s)

**.:oOo:.**

**NOTE: There is a bit of er, how should I say. a chase, yes, a chase. NOTHING HAPPENS. IT LOOKS LIKE SOMETHING WILL HAPPEN, BUT IT DOSENT! READ ON!**

Days flowed into months, months bled into years. People I know came and went. Six years passed like a breeze, and Kharl weaved in and out of my life like a thread. I saw him every once in a while, sometimes in the market, or at the river. But then there came a time when i saw him while shopping for food in the market. He was bent over a wicker basket grabbing armfuls of fruit, some people passed, obscuring my view, I looked again, and he was gone. The stall owner didn't notice.

The next time I saw him, he was with three other kids, a buck-toothed boy walked up to the stall-owner and enticed him into a conversation as a distraction, while Kharl and the two other boys grabbed meat and vegatables and scampered off, the distraction followed shortly. It was a funny sight, like something from a children's story book, the one's I'd longed to have when I was small. But I no longer was interested in story books, now I craved for something else; I wanted freedom.

I suppose I should have been satisfied with what I had already, after all, life had been going up hill for me, I no longer had to work in the gallows, and I was free to go anywhere as long as I did my chores and other meanial tasks given to me by my mistress. But, still Kharl's talk of running away, sparked something deep inside of me, something that wanted to burst out and be free.

I was coming back from the market, my old burlap bag, bouncing off my legs as I walked along the dirt road by some stores. I heard quiet murmurs, barely audible, but I heard them. My natural curiousity brought me to over to the nearly delipitated wall.

"Be ready tonight..." a voice hissed quietly

"Yes, tonight we kill that demon." another said , his tone full of venom. I paused at those words, these people were plotting a murder.

"To avenge our friend, and only for that." this voice was solem.

"Not so! Sooner or later, he'll get us as well! For our friend, and our lives." It was the first whom i had heard.

"You saw what he did to Mez! He'll so us in as well if he feels like it."

"Yes...but-"

"No buts! Tonight, be there, or else." the threat hung in the foul smelling air. "Tonight..Kharl will no longer be our leader."

My heart felt like it skipped a beat.

_Kharl? What did he have to do with this? _I thought franticly. _More importantly, Kharl is going to be murdered!_

I poked my head slowly around the corner.Three boys sat in a circle, all facing each other. I realized they were the same boys with Kharl the other day in the market. I stepped back, my heart pounding. The air was heavy with humidity and rotting food. I needed the find Kharl and warn him before night fell. I gazed at the horizon, my heart sank. The sun was about to set, I took a breath, hitched up my oversize pants, and began running towards the market. A place I was sure to find him. By then the sun was setting, its fiery light slowly being consumed by the earth.

The market was empty, just stalls, and bits of food here and there remained, plus a few wild chickens pecking in the dirt. Kharl was no where to be seen.

"Kharl!" I called "Kharl!" There was no answer. Tears of frustration welled up in my eyes.

_Woah! Hold on. WHY am I crying? As far as I know I had never cried before. Which was odd, and made me feel out of place when I had been young. All the little girls cried, why had'nt I?_ I pushed the matter aside and began to call for Kharl again.

"Well well, what do we have here?" A male voice asked behind me. I whipped around, only to face one of the dungeon guards.

The one who had pestered my about my age, and martial status. (Check FF net Dictionary for "Martial")

"Its the pretty little gallow maid." He stepped forward and grabbed my chin, then tilted my face to get a good look of me.

"Go harass someone else Tobias!" I yelled stepping away from him.I knew him quite well, considering I had been the gallow keeper for 4 years. He was known to be a strong , as well as violent man. He was 20 I think. Out of ther corner of my eyes I saw- to my horror, three other men come out of hiding behind random stalls.

_Dammit_ I thought furiously, I punched the approaching Tobias in the stomach and when he keeled over, I clasped my hands together and slammed them down on his back. The men behind me, began to run at me.

The chase was on.

Quickly I bounded to the nearest building. Only to find it was deserted. I was trapped between two rails. I jumped over one, and tore the side of my left pant leg. There was laughter from the men. Ignoring it, I ran to the compound yard, at least someone would be there. Once again I was proven wrong. It was empty , I called for help, but my plea only echoed off the crumbling walls. The men blocked the only exit I had, they were all laughing. Tobias stepped up and moved closer to me.

"Reina, is it? You looked so meek and quiet in the gallows. Not to mention dirty and tired..." he smiled. I stepped back only to bump into the wall. Tobias knew he'd won, because he stepped over to me and pinned me against it with his hands on my shoulders.

"In fact" he continued " You _still_ are dirty and tired...Arent you?"

I glared at him and refused to answer.

"Oh, don't be like that." he cupped my chin gently " I can make you better. I can make you happy again. You'll eat, sleep, and bathe all you want, if you agree to be mine..." His voice was but a whisper. And I have to admit I was almost convinced. But I looked at him angerily.

"And tell me Tobias" I hissed " What's in it for you?"

He smiled. It was a real smile. I mentally flinched. _What is he thinking?_ I thought

"I get to have the most beautiful girl in the village." and he brought his face close to mine. And for a moment, im ashamed to say, I let him do it. Until i realized how dark it was...

I twisted my head to the side so that he instead kissed my ear, he reeled back, letting go of me.

"What more could a lass want?" he asked, a look of hurt on his face. But whether is was real hurt or not I did not know.

I looked away.

_I dont know... _ I thought mentally. It sounded great...A man who thought I was beautiful, even though I stunk, and was covered in dirt, A house on which I could eat, sleep and bathe...And to be rid of my foster parents! What a joy it would be...Plus Tobias could have picked any noble's daughter off the streets, he was handsome, and strong. Being a guard to the Baron payed alot, everyone knew that. But he had picked me, a slave girl, quiet and thoughtful, not flirty and rich. Yet I could'nt say yes...

Tobias frowned, and grabbed me by the arm. He was about to say something but was interupted by a yell from his men behind him. Tobias turned, only to be punched by a white blur in the stomach, Tobias fell over, unconsious. I looked at my rescuer, and my heart leaped with joy.

"Kharl!" I cried happily rushing over to him. He grabbed my hand.

"Come on!" he yelled running to the narrow alleyway which was no longer blocked. We ran for a few minutes until we were in the town square, people milled about around us. Some stared at us quizically. We stopped at the fountain and sat down at the edge. Surprisingly we werent out of breathe. Even though we had ran though half the town. But I had no time to think on this, because all of a sudden Tobias appeared from the alley we had just left. I gulped and quickly told Kharl. His stunningly violet eyes darted to the alley, and then back to me.

"Lets go to my hideout." he whispered , "No one knows about it except for my gang."

He began to get up but I yanked him back down.

"No! Your friends are going to kill you!" I told him urgently.

"What!"

"I heard them, they...they're going to murder you! We can't go to your hideout, we'd be sitting ducks!"

Kharl tooked back towards Tobias, who was now scanning the small crowd for me.

"Either way, we're stuck, he'll catch us eventually, and my killers are probably looking for me as well." he said searching my eyes as if they had some kind of conclusion.

I bit my lip. Afraid of my suggestion, which I knew was very dangerous. But Kharl knew exactly what I wanted to say.

"You're thinking about hiding in the forest, arent you?" he asked, bitting his lip as well.

"Yes, but the demons in the forest! What will we do if one finds us?" I said worridly. Tobias has seen us and was now pushing through the crowd.

_If only it were morning _ I thought _The crowd would be too big for him to see us! _

Kharl pulled me up.

"I'll protect you." he said and we began to run towards the forest. Suddenly, the three boys who had been plotting to kill Kharl jumped out behind a huge barell, brandashing carving knives. Kharl didnt stop, instead he made a half circle around them and kept running, pulling me along with him. Tobias was behind us along with the three boys.

_What a strange scene we must make_ I thought, _a boy and a girl, being chased by three boys with knives, and a man._

Kharl and I ducked into an alley and made several random turns in the backstreet alleys. Finally, we lost them, but Kharl insisted we keep running. By now, my legs were getting tired, but we were nearly at the outskirts of the forest. We climbed a very small hill and stopped at the top.

Below us lay a long trench, or moat-like river. It surrounded the forest. I saw a large demon-ish looking fish jump out of the water and ghash its long white teeth, several more did the same.

Kharl gripped my hand tighter.

"What are we to do?" I asked francticly. Kharl seemed to be reasoning with himself. Finally he looked at me, and I saw fear in his eyes.

"Jump." He whispered.

"JUMP! Are you crazy Kharl? We wont make it! We'll be swimmin' with those nasty looking fishes!"

I heard shouts behind us, and we both turned to look. Tobias and the boys had found us, and now were running towards us.

"You might not be able to jump that far. But I can." He said quickly. "Get on my back."

"Have you lost it!" I cried " Kharl, you go, I'll stay, dying isnt as bad as getting married."

"Married _against your will_" He corrected.

"Lots of girls have to, now go!" I yelled

"Stop being stubborn." He said and grabbed me and put me on his back so quick, i have no idea how he did it.

I heard Tobias's yell just before Kharl back up a bit,

And launched himself over the edge.

**.:oOo:.**

**Author's Notes: **This one was pretty good.

Kurama13-  
This is really good. Please update soon.

**Reina's Response**- :Head swells with all the compliments: I love you! well, you know what I mean.

Sarehptar-  
Aw! Squee Little Kharl is soo cute! Update, update, update! I don't think you need an editor... You don't have very many grammar mistakes at all. Write more soon, pretty please?

**Reina's Response**- O.O My idol is reviewing... :Dies of shock: THANK YOU:Hugs:

Mjw -  
NO! You cant qiut! Its so good! oh, and by the way, I dont care if it doesnt have me in it. I might bother you about such things, but thats only to annoy you. Anyway, i like the story, but are you going to get to the point? As in, Is Reina going to need Kharls help soon? oh, and by the way(hm, I seem to do that alot), if you do quit, you'll leave alot of other readers hanging. Not very nice. But whatever, Later!

**Reina's Response**- Ok, im not quitting! lol. the annoying part makes me feel special. And the point hmmm, should come around the er... 5th chap. hahaa... :Sweatdrop:

chaotic pink chocobo-  
wow, great story so far.

**Reina's Response**- :D TY:Hugs:

Neith4-  
Yay! New chapter! It was great. Hm...it's making me curious about the next chapter...and yes, you did better with the background thing.

Oh...Kharl-sama...:huggle: He's so cute. Especially in this chapter. I liked how you emphasize the eyes...after all, the eyes are the windows to the soul. Kharl is such a bishie nOn I don't mean to steal him from you though! Nadil is Numero Uno for me always!

Keep up the good work!  
Peace!

**Reina's Response**- I..did...better...:Breaks out into uncontrolable sobs: THANK YOU SO MUCH! Lol, Nadil is kinda hot...Ahem, but I LOVE KHARL! lol And i think i like Tetheus too...O.o

Arwen-  
I still likey the fic, even if u dont. it's sweet. anyho... erm.. u need to have me proofread stuff 4 u, i noticed a lot of spelling errors. PLZ DONT KILL ME 4 SAYING IT! but i'll edit anything u want me to. im REALY freaking myself out now, ur spelling errors r driving me crazy. OMG! im turning into a lang. arts teacher! kill me b4 i start criticizing grammar! AH! go away little voices that r telling me to spell check! SRY! bye, now. plz, wack me over the head with something 2morrow & knock the spelling syndrome out of me!  
-Arwen  
P.S. PLZ continue with the fic! i beg of u!  
on knees, praying, staring holes into u with big sad eyes

**Reina's Response**- NOT THE LOOK! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO :Melts: Dont wry, i no quit! lol. promise.


	4. Fairytales and Dreams

**.:oOo:.**

**Author's Notes: Dude, the move is complete! I now live in Paris! And so far, I'm terribly homesick and bored. So I decided to ad more chapters to this fic, in which I thought I had abandoned. I hope my writing skills have gotten better with time, and i hope it's long enough, yet not too horrible for your eyes.**

**Important:** This Fic contains my OC ,Reina, and it is her point of view, unless stated otherwise.

**DiScLaMeR**

I DON'T OWN DK.

NOT THE SUPER MARIO MONKEY,

BUT THE MANGA.

thank you.

.:oOo:.

Mirrors

By Lumikuu

Chapter 4 -

Fairytales and Dreams

.:oOo:.

I couldn't help it, I screamed. We plunged through the air, closer and closer to the murky fast moving river.  
But somehow Kharl managed to land on the very edge of the bank. I almost cheered, but he teetered backwards, out of balance, due to the fact he was holding me.  
For some reason I let go. It was like slow motion, as I fell, the water drawing nearer, Kharl turning his head around to look at me in horror. And the last thing I saw was Kharl, as he whipped around and darted for my hand, but missed. I remember the terrible cold. It seeped into my skin and froze my bones and my very mind. I couldn't think, let alone move. The rip current snatched me and dragged me to the bottom of the river, like a child playing with its new toy.  
Then I saw a lady, all in white. She reached out to me, beckoning. The look on her kind, and beautiful face warmed me and made me feel light and bubbly, and I was tempted to reach out and take her hand. She smiled encouragingly, and reached out further.  
I took her hand.  
As soon as I touched her, all the warmth disappeared in a blink, but the lady cradled me to her side and stroked my tangled hair. I felt sleepy and closed my eyes. All my thoughts disappeared, and I forgot I could not breathe under water. All I was thinking was that I'd be safe with this lady. I'd never go hungry, and I'd always have nice clothes to wear, and I could sleep for as long as I wanted to. Like the noble girls.  
I felt a sharp tug on my sleeve and I saw Kharl. He was paler and more ghostly under water. He could have been mistaken for the lady's child. White hair and skin. Almost like death.  
That woke me up.  
He grabbed me in his arms and started to make his way to the surface. I wanted to go back to the lady with the cold touch, she was so beautiful, and comforting, couldn't he see that? I struggled tenaciously against Kharl's grip, but he held me tight, so all I could do was look in dismay at the lady's distraught face. When she realized, I was not coming back, to my horror, she changed to a scaly green color. Her tender smile grew angry and feral. Her eyes bulged and she opened her huge mouth, and screamed.  
It was a terrible sound, enough to make your heart stop and your blood run cold. Enough to make you surrender, like I did, to the darkness.

I woke up to find the sky was purple. Violet like Kharl's eyes- Wait. They were his eyes. I realized that because he blinked.  
"You're alive." he stated.  
"I am." I said, sitting up. Kharl was all wet and dripping, like myself. We were on the other side of the river. We had made it! Well Kharl had at least. "You saved my life." I whispered. "Again."  
"Well, I better not make that a habit then, eh?" he grinned, pulling me up. To tell the truth, I found him rescuing me, an embarrassment. He probably thought I was a stupid ninny who couldn't do anything by herself.

We took one last look at what had been our home, and then together we turned our backs to it and the people who lived there, and entered the forest.

I had read a book and in it was a kind of story called a 'fairytale' that reminded me strongly of what we were doing right now. Trudging through dense foliage and mud.

I forget what it was called, only that it was one of the books I had stolen from my Master's trunk that I happened to come upon when cleaning. Not like he ever noticed.

Usually I don't steal from my foster family, but in this case it was different. He had a truck filled with many many books, so much you could hardly close the lid. Most of them were partially moth eaten, or crumpled (they were all paperbacks) But among them were some nearly new condition books.

I had never ever seen my master read in my whole entire life. Not once did he sit down and just open a book.

So I took them.

I didn't put them in my 'room', but instead left them in the underground prison, under a false floor brick. I read them when there was nothing to be done and when I had free time.

In this fairytale there was a boy and a girl, and they had to leave their home because…Someone I think, didn't want them anymore. So they left and went into the woods. But the boy was smart and left his favorite marbles behind to create a trail so they could come back…or something like that. So when they came back the next day, that someone told them to leave again, and this time the boy used a loaf of bread to mark their trail. When he ran out of bread, the girl and he started to head back…only to realize that the birds and forest animals had eaten the bread crumbs. And now not only were they lost, but they had wasted their dinner. They wandered the forest, lost, for days without food or drink until the point where they were dying. ( I sure hope it doesn't come to that)

Then they came upon a castle made completely out of candy. Wait, no…it was a cottage.

And they ate, and ate until a lady came out of the cottage and invited them in.

The lady turned out to be a witch who trapped them in her house and tried eating the boy while working the girl to death. I forget how, but they tricked the lady into going into the stove and burned her alive. And then their father found them and took them home and of course, they lived happily ever after.

I wasn't too impressed with the story when I had read it and I still am not. I enjoyed reading the it though, and the rest of the fairytales in the book, but what I didn't get was why the bad character always died and the hero or heroine (or both) always made it out ok and usually got married and always lived happily ever after.

It kind of made me mad that the world wasn't like that in reality. Why couldn't we all live happily ever after? But then, is there really such thing?

'You think too much.'

'I know' I told myself mentally and continued to brush leaves and branches out of my way. I was sweating. Was it me or was it getting hotter? No, it's probably because of all the walking you've been doing. Yeah, that made sense I thought. But after another half hour I could barely breathe let alone think.

There was something wrong. I needed to stop. I needed air.

Finally I stopped and called to Kharl, who was still working his way through the forest ahead of me.

"Kharl, I need…" I took a gulp of oxygen. "…to rest…just for a minute."

Kharl turned around and came by my side.

"Alright, but only for a while, ok? We need to move as much as we can before the sun goes down…Hey, are you okay?" he asked, a sudden change of voice.

"Y-yeah…fine. I just need to breathe for a while." I mumbled sitting down on the ground. Kharl didn't respond, but he touched my forehead and looked ever more worried.

"You've got a fever!" he muttered, looking away and cursing. I guess that was his way of thinking though, because he wasn't talking to me.

A few seconds later he was crouching before me and tugging on my shirt.

"Listen, I want you to take your shirt off."

My eyes got big.

"I think I will let you finish your sentence before I start yelling." I stated grimly.

Kharl flushed and got shifty.

"Hey! That's not …I mean, it sounds like it does but its not!"

"Carry on."

"…Listen to me Reina. It's your shirt! It's wet and it's not exactly warm out, so your shirt is making you cold, and dampening your skin. Also, I don't think diving into freezing rivers helps either."

It seemed reasonable. And knowing Kharl, he was probably right.

I coughed.

"Right. But I'm not walking around half naked."

"There's no one here. Just the forest, its animals and the rocks."

"You're forgetting yourself." I said, crossing my arms.

"Yeah, but I don't care."

'Yeah, I bet you don't' I mentally scowled. Then in real life; "I do!"

Kharl frowned and tapped his boot on the leafy ground.

"Ah, I know, you can wear my shirt. It's already dry."

He took off his shirt and for the second time that day I was amazed about how pale he was. With all the time he spent in the sun too. I noted his lavender-white hair contrasted beautifully with his wan features.

Kharl caught me staring.

"What are you doing?"

"Oh." _Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha- Shut up._ "I was thinking about something. And I'm not feeling too good either." And that was the truth.

"Let's stop for the day then." Kharl said still looking worried.

"No, no, you were right, we gotta move before the sun sleeps." I said with weak determination, and started to move on again.

I didn't make it very far.

"Reina!" I heard Kharl yell, and then I didn't hear anything else at all.

---

I was swimming in the sea. Which was weird because I had never seen the sea, yet here I was floating.

The sky was an odd reddish color and the clouds were black, but it didn't seem to bother me.

I didn't understand at all but there was a soft feeling tugging at me and I stopped caring. Just when I was beginning to enjoy the sensation, the sea wasn't a sea anymore. The water turned to mist and transparent-like wisps of who-knows-what were floating past me, and I was being pulled in, downwards by invisible hands. Cold hands. Deeper and deeper, like with the demon-fish lady in the river.

Then Kharl was there and he was smiling at me even though I was panicking.

There was blood on his face and clothes.

Blood on his hands.

I couldn't breathe, and he was just smiling gently with those violet eyes.

I was mesmerized, and couldn't stop looking into those damned eyes of his. I was swimming in them, lost and drowning and breathless when I noticed I was sitting no longer in the evil mist but on solid ground.

I looked around and I saw that I was on an island covered in trees, and to my left was the vapor sea I had just been drowning in. Kharl was still there though, on the sand, and he motioned me to stand up.

I stood, and then he stopped smiling. A serious, hard look replaced the previous one. A look that did not suit his blood-flecked angelic-like face at all.

Foreign.

He pointed to my left, but continued to stare at me with that cold expression.

Was he mad at me? Why…? Why was…

I turned to look in the direction he was indicating.

There, in the midst of the wispy sea sat a castle. Even though it was far away and the details were hard to catch from where I was, I could tell it was black. I sensed evil when I looked at it.

Foreboding.

I turned back to Kharl, confused. He had lowered his arm back to its normal postion, but his hostile demeanor remained the same.

"Kharl…What's wrong, why are you looking- No, why is there blood on you? Are you wounded?" I asked, stepping foreward. No change in his face.

"What's wrong? That castle, who does it belong to? Kharl?" No movement.

He was scaring me.

"Kharl! Talk to me! Are you alright? Why are we here? That castle, who owns-" I grabbed him by both hands and shook them. A shocked look suddenly appeared on his features. He went rigid and his violet eyes seemed to focus solely on me and nothing else. Something was wrong. Something I couldn't place. It wasn't right, this…It was…

And then without warning he turned into ash.

"NO!" I cried, and reached out for the ash, hoping to undo what I had done. But the gray substance blew away in the gust of wind that suddenly picked up and it drifted out to into the vapor sea.

Forbidden.

"No!" I yelled again and thrashed in the air. "Kharl!"

"Reina!"

"No…"

"Reina, it's okay, wake up!" I was being shaken.

"Leave me alone…I don't want to be here, I want-"

"Reina!"

I opened my eyes. This time I did not make the mistake of mistaking the sky for Kharl's eyes.

Those eyes!

I covered his face with my hands.

"Don't look at me."

"Why? It's alright, you were hallucinating because of your fever. You're fine now, the fever's breaking." He took my wrists and placed them back down by my sides.

There they were again.

Two purple orbs, the color was infinite. Vast.

Why? Why was I so obsessed with his stupid eyes!

Sure, they were stunning, but I couldn't stop looking into them, and then I could never _stop_.

In one of those stolen books, I read an article about snakes who could hypnotize their pray with an intense stare.

Like what Kharl was doing now.

"Stoppit!" I cried and turned my head to the side so I wouldn't be forced to look at his face.

Kharl stood up, clearly hurt.

"What? What is it? I think that fever did something to you."

I sighed and didn't answer. What did that dream mean? I dreamed very seldom. And when I did dream it wasn't some petty dream.

It was usually serious, or a nightmare. And they always meant something.

One night when I was small, I had woken up from a dream where I had been standing the street at night. And there was fog everywhere. Then the old lady I was friends with, the one who baked me cookies and sometimes gave me books or toys appeared in the midst of the fog. She slowly began to walk down the road, to the end of the street, where the town exit was.

She passed me without recognition.

I ran up to her and had grabbed her sleeve.

"M'lady! M'lady where are you going?" I had asked. My old friend had looked down at my with the same kind smile she had always given me and she patted my head gently.

"Now now, Reina. Hush. Granny has to go somewhere." She whispered kindly.

"But M'lady! Please! Take me with you!" I begged.

"Ah Rei-Rei, If only I could, but your parents would be cross with me if I did."

"Their aren't my parents! They…They wouldn't care." I said sadly.

"That might be so Reina, dear. But Granny must go now, she cannot be late. And you cannot come with her, because it's not time yet."

I didn't understand, but I hung my head in sadness.

The old lady patted my head again.

"We'll see each other again, dearie. Be a good girl now. I'll be watching."

And she hobbled off into the foggy night. After few minutes, I could not see her for the mist was covering everything.

Then next morning I woke up and heard the news.

Granny had passed away in her sleep.

I heaved another sigh and blinked away the sun in my eyes, only to realize it was morning. I had been knocked out for a long time.

I looked around to see that I was in a clearing of sorts, but still in the woods.

'Kharl must have carried me…' I thought, sitting up. I started to feel bad about yelling at him earlier. It was my problem, and if I didn't like his eyes, I could stop looking at them.

'Yeah, right. Those orbs are damn near impossible to simply not notice.'

Another sigh. I decided to apologize for my actions, but Kharl was nowhere to be seen.

"Kharl?" I called tentatively into the empty space. There was no answer.

"Why am I not surprised." I muttered and stood up.

And then the vertigo hit.

I fell back to the mossy ground and lay still for a few minutes.

"Ugh. I feel like throwing up…" A couple more minutes passed and I resigned myself to just lying on the ground. My mind began to wander, first about that fairytale.

'I wonder if there really is an end to this forest. Maybe we'll be like that boy and girl, except we'll never find our happy ending. Maybe we'll die in this godforsaken woods. Maybe we'll get so hungry we'll have to eat each other…Kharl was right, I am being delusional…I wonder what he's doing. Could he have abandoned me because I was rude? No, Kharl wouldn't do that. Then where is he?'

I heard a shuffling and noise. 'That must be him.' I propped myself up on my elbows to face the direction of the sounds.

"Kharl, where have you been, I-" But I stopped. Coming through the bushes was not The puffy-haired boy I knew, but a demon.

Tales in the village said that demons usually looked like humans, asides their ears. But some also looked like things from nightmares.

Like this one.

I stood up and fell back down on my bum. The demon approached me slowly, as if savoring this moment before he devoured my soul. Or was it a my heart? I don't remember. Maybe they ate you whole and then- Agh! Shut up! You're about to be eaten!

I'm done for.

I crawled backwards helplessly, until I hit something firm. A quick turn around confirmed my suspicions, a tree.

I cursed loudly and turned back to the ever-closer yokai.

I can't die like this! Where's Kharl? Where…

"KHARL!" I screamed. My voice echoed through the forest, but nothing happened. No one was going to rescue me this time. My cry just annoyed the demon, and then he took a swipe at me.

Everything seemed to slow, and I saw the yokai's claw come down upon me in a languid arch.

I silently asked for forgiveness. More to myself than anyone else. I would never see my real parents, and I would never see the places I wanted to visit, and then I would never look into Kharl's cursed eyes again.

I'm sorry.

A flurry of feathers flashed past my eyes, and time resumed its course.

Birds. Two of them.

Defending me?

Yes.

The demon was dead in a few seconds. Blood all over the place. Birds.

They were screeching, circling mangled corpse in the air. In victory? In sadness? I do not know. Because they killed one of their own. They were surely demons. They did not resemble the robins or the sparrows I had grown up seeing in the village. They were huge. About the size of large hawks. But they were black, with wild feathers that were long and ragged. They looked like messengers of death…but they had saved me…

"Reina!" came Kharl's voice as he stumbled through some bushes into the clearing.

"What the hell-" He glanced at the dead demon and jumped. "What? What's going on? Did you do that?" He asked running to me and checking me over for wounds.

When he found none, his puzzled eyes met mine.

"Blood! Kharl…Kharl's there's blood on you!" I cried and scooted back a little. It was on his hands, the dark red color standing out on his pale skin. The stench of blood, a cold hard metallic smell, like copper surrounded him. It surrounded the demon too. It surrounded the clearing. It was overwhelming, and the urge to vomit came back.

"I caught a rabbit!" and he gave me his innocent smile, and waving around a little rabbit by the ears. I had just noticed he had been carrying it this whole entire time.

"Y-yeah..Great." I answered unsurely, while looking down at the ground. Kharl went over to the corpse of the yokai and nudged it with tip of his boot.

I watched him.

He looked…_fascinated_, for a second. And then the look was gone. He turned back to me,

"How did you kill it?" He asked curiously. I looked up rather startled.

"I didn't" I answered faintly. I scanned the blue skies and the tree tops briefly.

No sign of my saviors.

"Huh? Then how'd it die? This looks like slash marks…" he furrowed his brow and poked the dead thing with a nearby stick. (sorry folks. Had to do it.)

"Yuck Kharl, don't do that. It's dead."

"I know, and you still haven't answered my question."

I sighed for what must have been the billionth time that day. I was debating in my head whether to tell him the truth or not. It just didn't seem like a good idea. They weren't even around anymore.

"Birds." I finally said.

"Birds." He repeated, not hiding the disbelief from his voice.

"Yeah…But…they weren't normal…I think." I looked at Kharl. He looked serious.

Very close to the look from my nightmare. And the blood on his hands.

And I remembered a detail, something I hadn't bothered to question before.

"That's strange-" Kharl was saying, and I interrupted him.

"Kharl…Those boys, from the village…They were chasing us too, weren't they?"

"Oh, yes. They never like me much, they probably wanted get themselves a new leader. Preferably one of them. It's nothing to worry about." He answered calmly continuing to stare at the corpse.

Maybe it was just my imagination, but I thought I saw him stiffen slightly at my words.

'Liar' I thought. He didn't know I knew more than I should.

"Oh…" I feigned indifference. "Well, it's just that I heard them talking the other day, that… you did something to one of their pals, they said that you-"

"I have to find firewood. Don't move to much, we wouldn't want your fever to come back." Kharl said flashing his smile and disappearing into the woods again.

And that, was that.

**.:oOo:.**

**Author's Notes:** I really didn't like this one. I hope your eyes didn't bleed.

**Review section:** Shite. I have alot of reviewers. Well, it had been like, a year since the last update, DX.

Sango The Demon Exterminator- GOOD UPDATE UP DATE Or I'll pranck call u. PLEASE

L- Wow, the capitals speak for themselves. I can't believe you actually enjoyed that chap…THANKS! AND HOW DO YOU KNOW MY PHONE NUMBER?

Neith4 - Wooray! #does her Can-Can/Disco Dance of Joy# Update! W00t! #coughs# Anyway...this one kept me on the edge of my seat. What has Kharl done! This I must know; and this you must tell. Can't wait to find out!

Grammar, spelling is better, but by "martial" I think you mean "marital"...just a little nitpick by me, the spelling freak x.x

Keep it up! Peace

**L- Ah Neith4, I really like your dancing skillz. Lmao, thanks for reviewing! And you shall see! -looks godly- HOLY CRAP. I did mean marital….I put martial…? -dies of spelling embarrassment-**

Vera-chan aka Arwen- O.O OMFG! You wrote the 3rd chap! YAYS! You haven't left the story to die! wOOt! Anyways...love it, as usual. Hmm...KHARL'S SO COOL! Update, or die woman. glares If ya want me to type this story for ya too...I CAN DO IT! Ya just gotta gimme the manuscript. I need the manuscript for 'Obsession' too. We gotta get together soon. Lurv ya, mon ami! Oh, you can now have my KH fic. 'Tis all yours to mess with. Since I am a bad girl and have run my own fic into a rut...and won't continue it.  
-Vera er...I was Arwen...until I got sick of the LOTR jokes. . . 

L- You're dead to mankind now, honey. I will probably never see you on the internet again, but hey. Thanks for the review, and I hope high school is to your liking. I will never know.

TurtleChan -That's an interesting twist on the whole guy wants slave girl situation... He might actually been offering nice things. Oh well, he's not Kharl. Sucks for him. . Go Kharl go! wants to jump too Your story is very cute, and people are so mean to Kharl. But, what did Ka-chan do to "Mez"?

L- -blushes furiously- my god, you're so nice! Ka-chan….well you see he- lol, I can't give it away yet. Thanks for the review! Its much appreciated!

-That's an interesting twist on the whole guy wants slave girl situation... He might actually been offering nice things. Oh well, he's not Kharl. Sucks for him. . Go Kharl go! wants to jump too Your story is very cute, and people are so mean to Kharl. But, what did Ka-chan do to "Mez"? 

Kurama13 - yeah I saw kharl again! Love this chapter. can't wait for more

L- Lol, thanks, even though your reviews are short, my head still inflates about a mile. XD -huggles-

-End Review section


	5. A Nameless Demon's Bargain

**.:oOo:.**

**AN-** Chere amies, j'espere que tout vas bien avec vous. Lol ok, thats my french for today. So here we are, the next update IN ONLY 1 DAY.  
Frankly, i enjoyed writing this one. even if it sucks.

Please no maiming on how horrible Kharl's master is. He is entirely built of my own imagination (scary...).  
Gomensai.

**DiScLaMeR**

Out of fear I will do thsi correctly.  
Kharl, Kharl's Master and Dragon Knights belongs to Mineko Ohkami.

Kharl's Master's personality, speech, and appearance is totally my own creation.  
For all I know, kharl's master might be blonde.  
He is probably very OOC.

Forgive me and as i said in my AN, there will be no maiming.

**.:oOo:.**

**Obsession**

By Lumikuu

_Chapter 5 -_

**A Nameless Demon's Bargain**

**.:oOo:.**

We ate the rabbit over an open fire. And we didn't speak. Well, I would have, but I was too busy trying to chew the charred meat.

Kharl had burned the rabbit, even though he had been observing it the whole time it was being cooked. He literally sucked at cooking.

I think he knew it too, well, I was guessing the grimace of his face as he chewed that he did.

After finishing that rather sordid meal, Kharl suggested we sleep because I couldn't go anywhere without fainting. Which was rather annoying, and if I may add, embarrassing.

So as I lay down to sleep I whispered a few prayers to the Holy Mother and hoped that my best friend was not a murderer like those kids said he was. And then I fell asleep.

I did not dream, as expected. But I had the sensation of being light, and it was scorching. And when I woke, it felt I had slept for an eternity. I was so hungry, and thirsty, and so very, very hot.

Kharl was carrying me, piggy-back style. Even though I had just woken up, I was too tired to protest or even speak. So I groaned into his back.

A few seconds later he had stopped, and propped me gently against a tree trunk.

"Kharl…I..I don't feel..so..good…" I said slowly, my voice was raspy.

"Your fever came back. You've been asleep for two days, you must be hungry."

"Water..?" I moaned, squinting through the light. It hurt and made me want to vomit.

"No, I'm sorry Rei-Rei, I haven't found any kind of river or puddle at all. I'm sorry."

He sounded raspy too. I nodded to show I understood.

"Am I going to die here…Kharl?" I asked with closed eyes.

"Don't be stupid. Here," He put something to my lips, "I've been saving the last of the rabbit for you, I guess I burned it so much, its like beef jerky now. It keeps well." He laughed sheepishly.

I took the strip by my mouth and chewed vainly. Everything seemed to take so much energy from me. Blinking, speaking,…breathing.

I couldn't chew, my mouth just stopped.

The strip dropped to my chin and I just wanted to sleep. The heat was unbearable, and what was even more was that I was the only one who felt it. It was fall, and cold, but I…I was sweating.

"Come on Reina, chew…" Kharl said, putting the strip in my mouth again. I let it drop back out, and then I shook my head slowly from side to side.

Once, twice, and then I stopped because I couldn't do anymore than that.

Kharl frowned worriedly and took the strip back. Silence. Then there was the sound of chewing for a few minutes and I was allowed to rest in peace.

Then there was heat on my face, a light heat, but still, it was already too hot. I tried to back my head, but it was resting against the trunk of the tree and I was forced to endure the warmth. A light pressure touched my lips and I mumbled something deliriously. Kharl (obviously it was Kharl, because I don't know what else it could have been.) took the chance that my mouth was open and pushed the chewed up rabbit into my mouth.

"Now, swallow." he commanded, and I did so. The food went down my throat easily and I cracked an eye open to see Kharl chewing furiously again. Then he ducked his head close, very close, to my face and pushed his mouth against mine. I parted my lips obediently and the food came.

I was too tired, and too hungry to complain or freak out.

Kharl continued to feed me in this bird-like manner until whatever dried rabbit he had left was gone, and in my stomach. And then he lay down on the mossy ground in front of me and slept.

I followed right after.

Kharl was carrying me again and moving fast through the forest when I opened my eyes. It was still hot, but my throat wasn't so dry as before.

"Kharl?" I asked. He turned his head to glance back at me.

"You're awake. How do you feel?"

"I still feel hot and dizzy, but…my throat is better."

"Mmm." he said.

"How long have I been asleep?" I asked.

"Another day." he answered plainly.

"Oh…" Just how long have we been in here? Maybe I was right…Maybe this thing does go on forever, until the end of the world. I leaned my head against Kharl's back and wondered how he did it.

'Carrying me, and he's still running. He hasn't even broken a sweat… Actually, I've never even seen Kharl sweat.'

Everything came so easily to him. I sighed and went back to sleep.

Pneumonia

That's what I have.

I remember that one of the prisoners in the gallows had it, and the doctor wouldn't treat him because no one would pay for the services.

The man who had it called for water a lot, and moaned in his sleep about the heat, when it was relatively nice weather outside.

He died after a week, or something like that.

Death was nothing new to me, or the village I had grown up in. Sickness was everywhere, and the people who caught it died soon after. None of our doctors knew the cure, and some even died trying to find it. Our ruler, the Count, really didn't care much. As long as we paid our taxes and didn't bother him, he stayed inside his manor and only came out to leave for some foreign place who-knows-where.

Us children were the first to suffer. Most of us were raised in the streets because our parents couldn't afford to feed another mouth.

I never had to worry about that though, I knew my parents weren't from the village, or Arinas for that fact. Before granny died, she told me a strange couple, my parents, wandered into the village and dropped their newborn babe off to the local wet nurse. They explained they were from far away, a place called Dusis, and that they would be back for their child soon. And then they just plain out left.

Well, it had been fourteen years, and I had been waiting for along time for their arrival. So a year or two ago I decided they weren't coming back. But that didn't stop me, because _I_ was going to find _them_. Easy peasy. Now all I had to do was find Dusis…which was…where?

Ok so I still hadn't picked out all the flies in the ointment, but still, I would find out somehow.

And Kharl…Kharl could help me if he wanted to. Would he come? And if there really was an end to this forest what would we do once we got there?

Go together…or go our separate ways?

"Reina!" He was shaking me. His voice, excited. "Reina! Look! A castle! You're going to be ok. They'll help you."

I was happy for him, but I didn't open my eyes. I didn't answer.

I wanted him to be quiet, and the birds and the wind in the trees to just shut up. Couldn't they all just let me rest in peace?

No, not Kharl. Never Kharl.

He was shaking me again.

I was as good as dead, and I longed to hit Kharl to get his attention and tell him so…but I was so tired.

"Hey! Hey, you'll be fine, come on, let's go!" he picked me up like he had been doing for the past many days and began to run. The up and down movement was annoying and I wanted it to stop. Stop. Everything just stop.

Please.

I felt Kharl put me down on the ground. I looked at my surroundings from the floor through slit eyes.

It was a big castle. But there were no guards, no people milling about like a normal castle would have. No flags or banners. No indication that anyone lived here.

And I peaked. I shut my eyes for what I thought was the last time just before hearing Kharl whisper softly,

"For her sake, there had better be someone in there."

Demon of snow

Your cold gaze warms me so

To think that now I know,

You will reap what you sow.

It is too bad you will stay and I will go.

Oh but what an innocent smile.

Like that of a simple child.

Who would have thought,

That what you really sought ,

Was merely a smile to match your own.

A crack in the heavy black curtains let a single ray of light fall onto my face. I opened my eyes wearily. Was I dead?

Half of me wished I was, the other half didn't.

The first thing I realized was that I was in a bed. It had been a long, long time since I had slept on a bed. And this was a plush, pillow-covered one. I had practically sunk a foot or two into the mattress.

The second thing I realized was that I was absolutely naked.

I took this with unnatural calmness and just shimmied deeper under the warm covers.

It had been a smart thing to do, because the door to the room opened and a strange man I had never seen walked in and came to my bedside.

He was clothed in long sheets of midnight that he wore like a many layered robe.

Long black hair reaching down to his waist swayed gently when he walked towards me with inhuman grace. Marks like thick lines bled from his jaw line to the beginning of his cheeks on either side of his face. Deliberate or simply an accident I did not know.

My eyes traveled upwards past the lines. His eyes were coal black.

Oddly, they gave off no shine but did not look dull. Though his body was of a young man, his ebony eyes suggested otherwise. They were wise and held a nameless knowledge that I did not understand.

I liked the eyes more than I was to like the man in front of me.

His face altogether was beautiful.

Flawless.

I sat up in bed, making sure to cover myself entirely with the thick comforter.

"Good morning." He said simply, in a voice that sounded like wisps of smoke and velvet. I don't know why, but it made me think of those things, so that is how I will describe it.

His words were soothing and made me sleepy as soon as he said them. But I kept awake, staring in amazement at the strange man.

He waited for my reply, but I didn't speak.

He sat down in a chair I hadn't realized was there.

Because it hadn't been.

"I would ask if you are feeling well, but since it was I who healed you, I know very well you are cured." he said simply again.

I chose to speak at this moment.

"Who are you?"

"Those who knew my name no longer walk this earth, and it has been far to long to begin using such a calling again." he said. "But I am also he who saved your life. I am he who owns this castle. I am he who deals with darkness."

I looked at him, judging. He did the same to me.

"It has been very, very long since I have had visitors pass into my threshold. I suppose I am obligated in welcoming you." he said tucking a strand of black hair behind his ear.

Was I supposed to thank him?

"Where is the boy I was with?" I asked.

The man cocked his head ever so slightly, as if listening to something I couldn't hear. Then he blinked and resumed his normal position.

"Kharl has told me all about you. Reina." he whispered.

He knew our names. And what was this about knowing all about me?

"What…Do you mean?" I questioned slowly, trying not to sound rude.

"Kharl has also told me about your little adventure. And that you don't know yet."

"Don't know what?"

"You don't know because you are supposed to find out for yourself. And you haven't been searching. You haven't even tried." he scoffed, as if enjoying a private joke.

"I don't know what you are talking about." I said giving him a weird look. But really, a hole had opened inside of me. Somehow I did understand, even though I didn't. There was a note of recognition deep inside of me. Acknowledging this statement.

"I know." he said simply. "But sometimes we don't realize things are there when they are. Even when it is very evident. And sometimes we need a hint and a little push in the correct direction. Like what I have just done to you. Now you are forced to think about it, and forced to search for it. And maybe you won't even find it. That takes luck and skill. And you, child, have _neither_."

"I have neither? How the- Why are you saying this?" I demanded. The idea of a complete stranger telling me about myself like he knew exactly what he was talking about didn't fly with me.

"We know. Our kind does." his eyes boring into her like he was seeing straight into her. Then he blinked and changed the subject with a brighter, and less ominous tone.

"Your little friend Kharl is quite the catch. He's bright and capable. That's rare when we are raised among humans."

We? His kind? His kind….

And of course it hit me.

Demons.

"You're a demon aren't you?" I asked cautiously.

"Ah, she understands." he said softly. "And now the puzzle is out in the open, and only you can piece it together."

"Where is Kharl?" I asked again. An unbidden image of Kharl being eaten by the strange man quelled fear from inside me.

"Kharl is quite safe. He's here in the castle. Spending time with my birds. He likes them…not all do…" he left off, obviously because he was now thinking. A rather determined look came to his face.

Birds?

I suddenly wanted to leave. Take Kharl and run.

This man was a demon.

Demons were evil.

Evil meant death, or perhaps, worse.

"Judging by you being a demon…" I said, choosing my words carefully, "We won't be leaving this place anytime soon, will we…?"

The demon-man's face brightened considerably.

"Perhaps you are not as dull-witted as I thought, child Reina."

"No more pretense Demon." I growled, tired of his mysterious aire.

He chuckled grimly.

"You call me a demon as though it were a curse. When you complete your puzzle, you'll be even more surprised if you act like that. Surprised to your death, perhaps." He added.

I glared.

He changed face, his features became strict and even a little cold.

"I will make this quick, as pleasantry and familiarity was never my nature." he said. He looked calm despite his rude tone.

"I believe I have now saved your life twice." He stated. "And therefore, to be frank, you owe me two things…Two things equal to two lives. Or perhaps, one thing that equals two."

His manner of speech was confusing, and I was having a hard time keeping up. This constant talk of puzzles, knowledge, and frivolity was making me even more agitated by the minute.

"Excuse me for asking, but, I can understand saving my life once, but twice…?" I said, failing to keep effrontery out my voice.

He inclined his head slightly and looked expectantly at me.

Then he said deliberately, "It seems… You too, like my birds."

"Of course." I whispered. "_Your _birds. The ones from the forest." I still recalled the incident very clearly. The scent of blood still lingered in my mind.

The demon broke out into a fanged grin. Too wide for his face. Too harsh for his soft features. His coal eyes were approving.

"You knew we were coming then?" I asked.

"Of course. I wasn't going to let you in at first…but after seeing Kharl…I changed my mind and had this bed made for you." he was still grinning.

"…What is Kharl to you?" I asked.

"Kharl is most…Interesting…" Then grin was gone, replaced by that serious, cold expression.

"I would negotiate the terms of exchange with you." he stated.

I looked at him coldly.

"Why do I have to make a deal with you?"

He shook his head, as if he were exasperated with my pig-headedness.

"That is the law of things. Especially alchemy, which is what I do, by the by." he stated. "One of the most important rule in alchemy is that there must always be an equal exchange. You will find it applies in everyday life itself. Equations, nature, et cetera, child. It is the very balance that holds this world together." he gazed at me with a wistful faraway look. And then snapped back to pierce my gaze with his own.

"Plus, it is a debt. And I shall be sorely vexed if you do not return the favor." he added. This, I understood much more than his, "Alchemy" , and "Law of nature."

"Then, shouldn't Kharl be with us?"

"He said what ever you decided was fine with him."

I stared, unsure whether to trust him or not.

"You have been asleep for many a day. We've spoken much over the time." His black eyes hinted no trickery or falseness.

"…Alright. What would you like?" I decided to trust him. "I have no possessions except for my clothes."

"That doesn't matter, I burnt them anyway." he said simply and a hungry look appeared on his dazzling face when he spoke the next sentence. Another expression that did not suit his features.

"Demons often need more than simple cloth and breakable words. We prefer more…meaningful…possessions. For instance…I would have your lovely eyes. They are most unusual. I have never seen such a color." He said indicating my honey brown, black flecked eyes with a long gloved finger.

I shuddered. Losing my sight was not an option. If I were to meet my parents, I would like to see them as well.

"Or…your soul…they are always so pure at your age. Your heart too. Very easy to preserve. " He mused.

"I doubt you'd want them if you knew I've seen death and plague." I answered.

"Hmm…Still…I would have your servitude, perhaps? Seeing as you haven not much else to give. Of course, that only makes up for one debt." he muttered, staring at me now. "There are many ways…" But the rest of the sentence was lost, for now he was whispering to himself and I could not make out his words.

"Then." I said a little loudly to draw his attention from his incoherent muttering, "Then, what else can I do?"

He looked up.

"Actually, that is entirely up to me. If I wanted your heart. I would have it. Same with the rest of your ideas. You are literally entirely at my mercy. I am being polite though, and giving you the chance to decide for yourself, but either way…It's a dead end…"

I stared at him again. Then what was I supposed to do? I could not give more than I had. A question crossed my mind I hadn't thought of before.

"What of Kharl? He owes you nothing. He can leave if he wishes…right?" I asked slowly.

"Ahh….yes. There we have our answer." he said, his ebony eyes glinting. "Kharl…I have taken a liking to Kharl. I would have him, if you wish. Of course, he is worth both debts, certainly. I mean you no offense, but Kharl himself is worth more than your soul, heart and body put together. Yes…Such potential….And then you would be free to leave without harm."

I stiffened.

He, take Kharl?

I think not.

My mind was already cluttered with images of torture and the experiments this demon-man would inflict on my poor Kharl.

The demon with no name saw my reaction and offered solace quickly.

"My dear, I would not think of harming Kharl. I merely meant I would take him on as my apprentice. He would benefit much from my teachings. And once again I mean you no offense, but demons do not belong in the company of humans. I am sure that there will be many, where you are going."

"Are you saying Kharl is a..a…a demon?" I asked, almost laughing. Kharl, in my point of view, was possibly the most unlikely candidate for being marked a demon in the whole entire world. No demon, I was sure, could flash such brilliant smiles, or look so tender and sweet. Demons were demonic. They wreaked havoc and killed for fun. Kharl could never be such a thing.

The man's perfect eyebrows shot up and he eyed me tentatively.

"You don't know that either?"

A cold chill ran down my spine. Was he lying?

He must be. But what reason would he have…

"Lying to me won't change my mind. I'm not giving you Kharl." I snapped.

Now his eyebrows narrowed.

"Silly girl, I would not lie to you for such a petty reason. I could take him if I wanted."

"Don't threaten me," I hissed, feeling my blood start to boil. I was hard to anger, but here this man came, telling me nonsense about puzzles, Kharl being a demon, and speaking like he owned the whole damn world.

He laughed a humorless laugh. Short and bitter.

"We often resort to denial when the truth is too harsh. Even demons." But before I could open my mouth for a comeback he glared at me.

"His ears child. And his eyes, no human iris could bear such a wonderful pigment." he said.

"I-" I started but he cut across me.

"Have you even seen his ears?" he demanded impatiently, but he never expected an answer, for he began to speak again. "Let me give you a tip, a very important tip, child. You ought to remember it for the rest of your life." he said, gazing at me in a fierce manner.

"Humans have ears like yours. Rounded and insensitive. Fairies, the same thing, except they are much smaller, like their bodies. Demons, and Dragons have ears almost identical in appearance to humans, except they are pointed at the ends and can hear things much, much better than yours. And then there are the elves with long pointed ears. They might have the best hearing out of all of us. Remember that, it makes them easier to recognize." he noted, showing me his demon ear with a hand. I never noticed Kharl's ears. They were hidden my his mass of puffy hair that was in desperate need of a trim. I began to worry.

"Can…can I talk to Kharl?" I asked hopefully.

"I would take you to him." he said simply, and stood up, long black cloak billowing behind him as he strode purposefully out the door.

I nearly got out of bed too.

"HEY." I yelled, hoping he could still hear me. "HEY! I need clothes first!"

He reappeared in the doorway.

"Your clothes are on the end of your bed, silly girl. I will wait outside so you may dress." And he was gone. I turned my head to the end of the bed, and sure enough, clothes that had certainly not been there a minute ago, sat neatly folded on the edge of my bed, a pair of boots on top of them.

"Cheater." I muttered, and then put them on without much bravado.

It was a black dress that went down to my ankles, with long sleeves that fit me perfectly, like no other clothing had.

Always too baggy, my boys clothing was. I wondered how the demon knew my size.

Next came the boots, made with a material I had never seen before. They were black like the dress, and made from a leathery, scale-ish cloth. Needless to say they were very comfortable.

I laughed bitterly. How ironic, the best clothes I have ever received came from a demon I had just barely met and who wanted my soul and my best friend.

I met the yokai outside my room and he look approvingly at me, and without saying anything he began to walk down the narrow corridor. He was quite tall, I realized, and I wondered if Kharl would ever be as tall as him. Little did I know, that I would not be disappointed in the future.

I followed him through silent dark winding corridors and little halls that all had odd contraptions, vials, and bookcases and shelves of literature. Everything was dim, because there were practically no windows.

After about ten minutes of walking I realized how big this castle must be. And from what it looked like, Kharl, this demon-man, and I were the only ones that occupied the dark spaces of this dim chateau.

"Are we the only ones then?" I asked quietly, breaking the heavy silence. He nodded briskly, not breaking his stride.

"What did you do with the people who lived here before?" I asked, secretly glancing at the only bit of his face I could see from behind him. I thought I saw the same grin he had given me before in my room. The one to large and too severe for his beautiful face. But it was so dark I wasn't sure.

"They…let me have it." he said calmly.

Yeah, right.

I thought skeptically, glaring at the back of his head. 

A moment later, we walked into a sunlit room. I know now it is called a sunroom. Quite fitting, actually.

Kharl didn't see us come in, he had his back to us and he was playing with the same two ragged birds that had indeed saved me from the demon in the forest. He was clothed in the same fabric as I, black long-sleeved shirt, and black pants with boots. It looked good on him, but the color made his skin seem transparent and ghostlike. I was sorely reminded of the river demon-woman.

The birds flapped around noiselessly, which I thought was amazing for birds of their size. Kharl was smiling so brightly all the fear I had about him being a demon temporarily vanished.

Demons don't smile like that.

Though he was sixteen, he was still as childlike as ever.

The demon-man motioned me farther into the room. I moved forward towards Kharl, and he noticed me and turned around, still smiling. One of the birds perched on his outstretched arm.

"Aren't they great Reina?" He asked.

With a smile like that, they could be giant onions and I would still say yes.

I thought wryly. I gave him an absent minded smile and nod, but I was focused on the place where his eyes were supposed to be. No chance, they were covered by his random tufts of lavender-white hair. 

The rangy bird on his arm cawed at me loudly and flew up to join his brother on the rafters above us.

"They're so smart." he appraised them, looking up admiringly. Then he looked back at me, violet eyes twinkling.

"What do you think of master?" He asked.

"Master!" I cried, staring in horror at Kharl. That wretched demon! He already had Kharl calling him, "Master".

"You needn't call him that." I said sharply, turning to glare at the demon-man who I thought was behind me, but had apparently left us to talk about this alone. I turned back to Kharl, who shrugged.

"What else is there to call him? He wouldn't give me his name. And anyway, he's very neat. He know of all sorts of things, and he even said he'd teach me if I wanted!" he grinned happily, nearly jumping up and down out of happiness.

I stared at Kharl.

What had that appalling demon done to him while I was healing!

"Kharl, listen to me." I said taking hold of his hands like I had done many times before in the past. It was his cue to start paying attention, and now he was.

"That demon won't let me leave until I give him something in exchange for him saving my life twice. And Kharl, he wants you." I cried, my hands shaking.

Kharl seemed to think about that.

"Then say yes." Kharl said simply, with another shrug.

I nearly died on the spot.

"ARE YOU CRAZY?" I yelled, shaking his hands. "Who knows what he'll do to you!" Kharl frown and released himself from my grip. He looked at me strangely, as if he didn't recognize the person in front of him.

"Reina," he said quietly. "I don't think, he'd do anything."

"But-"

"Reina." He said my name again. Looking at me again with those violet eyes that gave me the illusion I was melting.

"I _want_ to stay."

Those words were like a white hot knife, cutting through my heart. All hopes that we would get out of here alive, and that he would come with me to find my parents, died.

His eyes were sorrowful, but sincere.

This is what he wanted.

And I had no power to change that.

I reached out slowly towards his face. He didn't move, but he seemed to stop breathing. I touched his cheek.

He was cold, and he looked startled. He had expected me to blow up in his face. To hit him, to rage. But I knew it was a lost cause.

I moved my hand to his temple and brushed the hair back from it.

His_ demon_ ear greeted me.

The cartilage at the top came to a point and was more angular than my human ears. Like the demon-man's, my head hurt when I saw it.

This time it was not my hopes that died,

but a part of my desolate heart.

Kharl flinched and pushed my hand quickly away. But it was too late, I had seen what I had seen.

I felt a sob build in my throat. I couldn't swallow. I couldn't breath.

Kharl stared at me in fear, no doubt wondering what I was about to do.

And what I did was turn tail and run out the door into the corridor and lose myself in the depth of the castle and my mind.

I let out the lodged sob, and I knew Kharl had heard it.

With ears like those, who wouldn't?

**.:oOo:.**

**Author's Notes:** My fav part was the ending...even if it was badly written. Sorry.

**Review Corner:**

**Sarehptar:** Oh, don't worry! I'm just happy you reviewed on this one, lol. I liked the stick part (shocker) too. XD. I hope this day-after-last-update pleases you. And that your eyes dont bleed, P

xenocanaan: Woooooow, new reviewer! You think so? Well, im glad you do. Thanks for reading, and ill try to update soon.


	6. Eyes Wide Open

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**Author's Notes: ** Christ, after much delay, procrastinating and frustration, here it is. Chapter 6. I hope the few readers left are bloody happy, lol. I like this one. I look back at the older chapters (a YEAR!) and I scoff. Im surprised any of you had the gall to continue reading on to the next chapter. They were all uber crap.

oh!

**IMPORTANT:**

**I updated chapter 1, it is now longer, and LOADS better than it was originally. There's more details about Reina too, if you'd like to read. I changed the begining a lot, so check it out!**

** 3**

**dîSC¿åim£®**

I do not own any characters from Dragon Knights, seeing as they belong to Mineko Ohkami. I am not profiting from any of this, except the own improvement of my skill and being able to read wonderful crit from my reviewers. :P

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Oº°'¨Mi®rØR§¨'°ºO

By lUmìKüu

_Chapter 6 -_

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The corridors winded and twisted and went on without end. Every fork in the hall branched out into another fork and so on. There were red halls, blue halls, and green halls. Dull halls and gold plated halls. Each hall had the same amount of numerous doors, lined up, waiting to be opened. They held secrets no one would ever know.

Each and every door had different carvings in a language I did not recognize. Jagged fonts and chicken scratches behind textured frames. The doorknobs were differently shaped, differently designed, and made from different material. Some doors had no handles at all, just wood implanted on a wall.

It went on forever and ever, and I ran past them. I passed over a hundred doors, each and everyone with a secret behind it.

But I ran without a backward glance.

I ran until the breath in me was gone, and no longer could feel my legs. Then I ran some more, oblivious to the physical pain because my mental disbelief and betrayal stung and ached more than my body ever could.

My mind was peaking and I saw black spots dancing before my eyes. I tripped, clumsily and fell forward in a graceless arch. I met the carpeted floor and felt my forehead slam down onto the ground. Circles and light danced in my head, and a sick feeling wound itself through me.

Pain shot through me once more, and this time the pain came from my legs. Short but screaming stabs and jolts.

I cried out and my echo answered me, flying off the empty hallways and bouncing off closed doors, returning to my mouth and shoving themselves down my throat and back to my stomach.

It was utter madness, and I thought I would never end. I could have begged for death right then. I would have asked for it willingly. Anything to ease the betrayal and the pain. The only trust I had ever given had been thrown back into my face.

By a demon with the face of an angel.

A _Youkai_

The world reeled and I felt my eyeballs roll back into their sockets right before my head hit the ground again.

When you awake from blacking out, you are lost. You can't remember what has happened, who are you are, what you were doing , anything. Nothing at all until a few seconds have passed.

Those few moments are truly frightening. You are nobody, just a person in a place without a history. A speck of dust compared to everyone else. A nobody worth nothing at all.

I gaped and clawed at the air, but when reality hit me I moaned from the carpeted floor and my hands fell back to my aching sides. I wasn't sure which hurt more; My trust or my body.

I stood up slowly and unsteadily, trying to ignore the protest of my aching muscles and dizzy head. I dared look to look around, trying to gain control over my wobbly legs once more.

I knew there was no point in walking. I was lost for good. Each corridor, each hallway was the same. They were decorated differently maybe, but the design was the same. That much I had noticed while running.

I looked upwards; the ceiling was high and arched, the light came from the glass skylights above. No chance of climbing out the windows.

I let out a sigh and looked around me once more, collecting my thoughts.

I had no idea how to get out.

How ironic. I had escaped my pursuers in the village, scraped past the water demon, passed through a dense forest, had almost been killed by a demon, and battled a raging life-threatening fever and I had lived. And now was going to die lost in a huge castle.

Ironic.

I let out a laugh I did not recognize. A harsh bark, humorless and short. I swallowed my breath before I could finish the foreign sound.

What was going to happen to me? Was this fate? To be betrayed and to die alone in a demon's castle full of regrets and pent-up rage?

I absolutely refused for it to end like this.

I had always been a survivor. I never let the depression, or the sickness, or the greed get me. Death would certainly not take me like this.

Ignoring the doors that surrounded me on each side, I set myself to walking at a brisk pace while I lost myself in thought.

I cleared away doubt and betrayal and focused on reasoning. I had to think things out before anything else.

Kharl being a demon…seemed so odd. He was the same Kharl I had known for years, but now that I knew he was a demon it seemed strangely different. His sweet innocent image was dirtied because the title 'demon' was now attached to him.

Certainly I felt different about him. It was as if he had transformed into a demon instead of being one all along…he had been a wolf in sheep's clothing.

At first I thought he was an angel. His paleness and child-like smile was stunningly angelic. I had never mentioned it to him but simply noted it every once in a while. A small grin, the raise of a pale eyebrow, the subtle movements of his lips.

I blinked away blossoming tears and bit my lip.

He seemed so far way now, in every way imaginable. I couldn't help but feel momentarily lost. My mind was waging a war. On one side was accepting Kharl for who he was and the other hating Kharl for being a demon and a fraud.

I had been raised on tales of carnage and gore all caused by demons. My human instincts screamed in horror to know that he was a demon, one of _them_. To know that the blood of a natural born killer ran through him gave me chills.

But I would not hate Kharl for being a demon.

At the same time there was a sense of relief that had simply rested in the back of my mind. Perhaps because I had always sensed that he was not the same as I or any of the villagers but I never could tell what it was that made him different and finally, I knew. Maybe that's why I decided to save him that day in the dungeons, or why I ran away with him without a second thought. Maybe I felt slightly relaxed because I had searched for the answer and I had finally found it.

I closed my eyes and stopped walking. Hate bubbled inside me for the demon that owned this castle. This sudden mood swing made me clench my fists and I tasted blood from the lip I has just bitten through.

How dare he try and take Kharl away from me?

I let out a scream that would have put a banshee to shame. It echoed through the hallways, bouncing and resonating off stone walls.

It sounded so unlike me. So savage, so bestial. I laughed out of surprise, and my laughter too sounded like it was someone else's. I gasped, my hands flew to my throat.

What was happening to me? Was I going mad?

I was a stranger entirely on my own, and then…I felt someone tap my shoulder gently.

I whipped my head around but my eyes met the grey bricked wall. Shadows played around the ever growing darkness in the corners. The skylights showed it was getting dark.

What was that? I looked around again, turning to catch a glimpse of someone, anyone.

No one.

I started walking again, my shadow cast out far ahead of me, stretched and not at all proportional to my real body, which felt light and small.

Another tug. But there was no one behind me.

My feet stopped on the red carpet.

Tug.

I blinked, trying to understand.

My heart felt weird, like it's strings were being pulled. I put my hand on my chest, feeling my heart beat.

It was there, beating faster than normal. Another tug, and I felt my heart miss a rhythmic beat. I let out a gasp.

The pulling was inside me…it wasn't physical…it was more mental and…there was no way to describe it. Just this vague pulling, directing me.

I walked in the direction of the pull, down the corridor to a fork.

I took the left without blinking an eye, the pulling was getting stronger. I started to trot, passing silver and gold doors. My heart was coming loose, I swear I felt the veins ripping and the cardiovascular muscles straining. The pulling was more persistent and it began to hurt.

I started running again, the pain in my legs were reborn and I let out a yelp of surprise pain.

I didn't dare stop, the tugging was worse and worse. I knew it threatened to tear my heart straight out of my chest if I didn't keep up with it. Stopping was absolutely fatal.

There was a door, the source of the pull. It was gray, and blackened like it had been burnt. No time to think, I ran into it blindly, hammering it with my fists. My wild, darting eyes caught a glimpse of the plaque on the door. It was all swirly letters that I couldn't read.

I pounded the door with another fist and the door swung open fiercely. It banged the wall on the other side of the threshold. I threw myself in, complying with the now ripping force that commanded me.

Then all at once, everything stopped.

My heart flew out of my chest and I was on my knees, cradling the hole. No voice came from my throat, and there was no pain, just a sudden awareness. I was so light…A breeze might of blown me away. Everything was crystal clear for one brief moment.

And there was no blood…I took my hands from my breast and looked at them, examining my dirty, but otherwise, bloodless fingers.

Somehow they were different…so more sharpened and defined, the lines and grooves were so evident and I wondered suddenly why I had never noticed them like this before.

I tore my eyes from my palms and looked up.

A thousand of me were looking at me. In all directions, surrounding me. Crouched, like I was, a thousand brown-gold eyes widened at me all in unison. I fell backwards, staring in awe and confusion. Breath escaped me, I was so mesmerized.

I remained on the floor, in the same position. I felt it was necessary to use caution, the sight was overwhelming. Then after a minute, I staggered upwards, not taking my eyes off my clones. What magic was this? I moved towards the nearest me, only to trip and land on myself…Beneath me, I exploded into shards of light, which fell to the ground, useless and destroyed.

The spell was broken. I could look around now. The thousand of other me's were all just reflections in mirrors…Thousands and thousands of mirrors. I was too busy looking everywhere that I didn't notice the few shards that had lodged themselves near my collar bones and my chest.

Even in the dim light, I could make out the shapes and varieties. Hand mirrors that were propped up to face me, footed mirrors that were twice my size, palm mirrors, oddly shaped mirrors that looked like globs of reflective glass.

It was a bit eerie, I thought, as I walked among the mirrors. Reflections of myself met me at each turn, in each direction.

I was suddenly aware of how gangly and thin I was. How my hair was a certain dull brown, and a shimmering cinnamon when the light hit it. How it needed to be trimmed.

How my face was angular and my lips full and pink. My hands were smaller in the reflections, and I noticed I had a breasts beneath my black blouse.

I bumped into a rectangular mirror leaning against the wall, sending it crashing into millions of pieces. I stepped on them, too preoccupied with my own reflections. The dragon hide boots protected my feet from the razor bladed pieces.

Never had I been exposed to my clear reflection before. I had a vague idea of what I looked like looking into ponds and still-water, but never so clear. And to be surrounded by myself all so suddenly, I was intoxicated. I wandered about among my duplications, in a haze, so self-conscious, brushing back tangles of muddy brown hair, straightening my skirt and adjusting my collar. My image was so sharp and refined. I could smell the must in the air, sense the layer of dust coating my surroundings, see the shafts of light dancing off mirrors and into darkness. I was alert, blinking away the darkness. Everything was so clear as if it were all illuminated by the brightest sunshine. I roamed among my reflections, the only true self in the room, entranced.

And then suddenly, I came upon a mirror unlike all the others. It was a large, full-body sized mirror encased by was looked like branches that sprouted from the ground…The roots, or whatever they were had forced themselves upwards in between the cracks of the stones, elongating the cracks that separating slab from slab in the ground, some branches even breaking through the solid granite, rendering the hard stone to broken pieces, sticking up jaggedly from the ground.

I stopped and gazed in wonder at the strange mirror. I reached out and brushed dust off one of the larger branches absently mindedly, as I read the small plaque dangling from the lowest branch.

"Ruthtë" it read. And I didn't understand. I glanced at the mirror's surface one last time before I started to move on.

Then I froze.

My reflection had just smiled at me. I turned back to the mirror, mouth open. My double let out a silent laugh and tucked her hair behind her ear carelessly. The ear lengthened and grew pointed.

I frowned disbelievingly.

Her eyes tilted just a little and were now almond-shaped. Molten gold seeped into her irises and the hair that framed her face took up a vivid amber tinge. Her jaw sharpened and her nose grew more refined. She was all angles now. When she grinned, her canines elongated slightly. She grew taller, legs growing, slender and fit. Her fingernails grew into clawed talons. She blanched significantly, but it only added to her newfound beauty. Her expression remained calm and satisfied all the while.

Backing up, I stared at the reflection in horror. This beautiful demoness wore my face. She had stolen…my…

I looked down at myself…

And screamed.

My reflection had finished it's transformation…and so had I.

---

I think I fainted. My mind was self-destructing, so I can't really remember what I did. I think I hurled myself from the room. There was a lot of smashing and cracking as I destroyed mirrors in my haste to get out.

When I reached the door, my imagination told me the door would be locked. I'd be stuck in here, with my freak of a reflection.

No, it wasn't me, it couldn't be. I refused to accept it. It was a trick, a nasty trick. The mirror was playing mind games with me. It was trying to force me to believe I was something I wasn't. I couldn't.

No way.

I could smell pine from the door I scrabbled at, blindly raking the smooth surface for the doorknob. I burst out, swallowing air in great gulps. Tumbling to the floor I rolled twice before jumping back to my feet.

I smelled the dust of the hallway. I tasted the staleness. I _smelled_ the emptiness.

But that was impossible, emptiness did not have a smell. But I could smell it. My brain registered it as if I had always been aware that the abstract had a scent.

I opened my eyes wide. Details came into focus. Extreme details.

I could see mites in the carpet, see every dying ray of light, I could sense time rolling off me like raindrops. Everything was more real than I had ever noticed. It was like a damp sheet had been smothering me, obscuring my vision, dulling my senses…and had been yanked off me brutally.

I let out a scream that rattled the plaques on the doors.

"I'm not..I'm not.." I muttered, bile rising to my throat. "I can't…There's no way.."

"You are."

I whipped around.

Kharl's Master stood there, black robes billowing about as though there was a breeze.

My first thought was to run, to turn tail and just run. But my now clear thoughts quickly eradicated any impulses. It told me to wait and listen. This was important.

I waited.

The demon smiled calmly, nodding as if he were approving my decision. He took a few steps toward me, looking me up and down before he came to rest an arm's breadth away from me.

"My, that was quick. I had no idea you would find out here, in my castle." he said, black eyes boring into me like they had before. I didn't look away. I stared right back, defiantly and with wild, mad eyes. He might of flinched but I wasn't sure. I wasn't sure of anything anymore.

"Your..your mirror..it's been messing with my-"

"No." He said exasperatedly, "No, it has not, you silly girl." He touched my cheek with cold hands. I recoiled.

"This _is _you. You. The veritable you."

I stared at him in horror and disbelief. I began to shake my head but his voice cut across the silence.

"Child, accept it. You are a half blooded Youkai."

"No!" I screamed. I had been doing a lot of that lately. " NO! It's NOT me. I'm human! I'm not even half- no! My parents were humans! You change me back, you hear? You do it _now!_" I had grabbed his robes. He was much taller than me, at least by a foot, even with my newfound height.

He was silent, his face inscrutable. I felt like throwing up. I'd do it on his face. I fought the mad desire to laugh. It was all a joke, it had to be. This really wasn't happening. I was dreaming. I'd wake up, and I'd be back in that room, naked, warm under the covers. Better yet, I'd be home, in my hovel of a closet. I'd wake up and I'd go about my normal duties, feeding the prisoners and stealing a few reads of those books my master never read. I'd be wearing my normal baggy, itchy brown cotton boy clothes and I'd be barefoot, not this fine black material, not these boots. And I'd look normal, I'd be a normal, muddy-faced ragged little girl. Not this facsmile of a sham. And most importantly, I'd _feel_ normal. Everything would go back to being muddled and obscure. I wouldn't be able to smell my own _panic_.

Because it was the truth.

"No.." I moaned, sinking to my knees, my hands sliding down the silky fabric of the demon's robes. "No…"

Kharl's Master did not step away, or try to remove my fists from his clothing. He just told me in a calm voice, "The mirror was merely a medium, with which you used to take on your true form." He fell silent, looking at me again. "Though you are only half youkai…it seems as though you have more demon genes than human… Many humans will find you appealing now…More the easier to entice them and to kill them."

I looked up sharply, eyes clear. The tears would not come no matter how much I felt like crying.

"I…Will never kill a human. _Never_." My voice was the coldest I had ever heard it. It was the stranger speaking again. Steely and callous. "Though I might..might be half..Y-Youkai- "My voice caught on the first syllable. "I am still half human. I'm still me. I..don't-won't kill anyone."

The same harsh grin slid across his face, destroying his flawless visage.

"Oh my dear, you say that now…But when you find out how easy it is…How flimsy their bones are…how slowly their minds function, how easy it is to crush the life out of them…how enjoyable it is to watch their last breath leave their lips…-" He said those words slow and deliberately almost lovingly, his malicious smile as big as ever, "-then you will see, Reina." He laughed suddenly. "Oh but you already know! You've been a human for thirteen years…You've lived among them for an awfully long time." He reached out and touched my forehead. "Surely..Surely there are a few humans in which the world could do without. You've watched them, you've seen them. They squabble over meaningless things, they destroy themselves with their own weapons and disease…"

Images had begun to surface in my mind. Memories from the village.

I was six, being pushed around my older kids who stole the food I had bought on the orders of my lady. My lady wasn't listening to my excuses, she was beating me. I was in my closet, hunger knowing at me stomach. I was seven, stopping the guards from kicking Kharl with an angry snarl on my face. I was nine, watching a crying child trying to wake his dead mother up, who had collapsed in the streets. I was ten, watching granny get mugged and stabbed in the process. I watched her die, life leaving her eyes. I felt the hate well up in me, hate for everyone who had wronged me, I had no friends. Because those people were anything but friend material. I remembered the backstabbing, the theft, the murders. The greed, the disease, the purposeful ignorance in the Baron's eyes.

The fury in me alighted suddenly.

"Yes…You feel it? Their selfishness, their stupidity. You've lived among them for thirteen years, yet you haven't trusted a single one... How did it feel to live among charlatans? How did it feel to feed those who were condemned to die. Did those few deaths matter? Did it stop the sickness? Did it keep children from having to dig in the garbage to find nourishment? Did it ever change _anything_?" His ebony eyes were icy cold. His logic was stifling.

"We," He continued, something like a fierce passion burning in his smokey voice, "We, the Youkai, we limit the disastrous effects of human existence. Killing them is merely a way of keeping check that they don't over-populate the world. Imagine all the murder, all the disease…Imagine the foulness the world would have to bear if humans ran free and wild all over existence." He withdrew the hand on my forehead I had forgotten was there.

"The elves, the faeries, they are too disdainful, too high and mighty to lower themselves to kill humans. But the Youkai, we do their dirty work, we do what must be done because there is no one else to do it." He was glaring now at my frozen expression of shock.

"Yes, Reina. We _kill _humans. And we _enjoy_ it. If we have to do it, then why not take pleasure in it as well?" Why waste the opportunity?"

He knelt down across from me and took my face in his freezing hands. Looking into his eyes was like looking into death.

"And soon, you will come to accept that."

And he was gone.

øØ†Øø

**Author's Notes: **

Lord. Im tired.

zzz


	7. Birth & Death

**øØ†Øø**

**Author's Notes: **'

Phew. Finally done. Seeing as this story hasn't been planned out from the start, every time I sit down and write, the story takes on a new idea, xD.  
In other words, I have a vague idea of where this story should go, but no idea how it's gonna get there, so everything I write is 20 percent thought out, and 80 percent spur of the moment!

Hee.

**dîSC¿åim£®**

I do not own any characters from Dragon Knights, seeing as they belong to Mineko Ohkami. I am not profiting from any of this, except the own improvement of my skill and being able to read wonderful crit from my reviewers. :P

**øØ†Øø**

Oº°'¨Mi®rØR§¨'°ºO

By LµMïkµu

_Chapter 7 -_

Bï®Th & D€a†H

**øØ†Øø**

Without feeling, without speaking, without thinking, I walked the hallways.

I took the path my new, intelligent youkai instinct told me to take. I knew the way. It would have been folly to have doubted my wisdom then.

It seemed like minutes, but I walked the whole night. The dawn light that filtered through the windows above told me this as I finally reached the exit; a large oak door placed in the wall at the end of the hallway.

They opened silently with the touch of my hand and I continued forward without breaking my mournful stride. I ignored the kitchens, the library. Eventually I passed the room where Kharl was. His room. How did I know that?

I could feel him inside the room as I passed the door. I could sense him breathing. He wasn't asleep. My knowledge of everything was startling.

I walked to my temporary bedroom at the end of the hall, passing the bookshelves filled with literature, vials and bizarre objects. Judging by the amount of dust my eyes picked up on them, they hadn't been touched in years. Why did I care?

Farther down the hall, I heard a door close quietly. I felt Kharl coming around the corner, feet tapping almost silently on the stone tiles. My old self wouldn't have even noticed, I realized and then I received a mental shock.

Is this what it felt like to be Kharl? To feel and sense everything as the world passed by? All these years, he had lived life in so many more details than I had. Did he know how humans felt? How choked off they were from the real world? I realized how humans pretended to know everything, when in fact, they knew so little. Nothing. Why did we lie to ourselves? Why did we place our trust in the people who fibbed and told us stories? Why did we believe them?

_We were comforted by the lies. They were a way of life._

Kharl was standing behind me.

I did not turn to face him. My new face, my new body…would I be comfortable showing it to him? But of course, he knew. He knew I had changed. Did he know I knew what he felt now? What he had felt all these years? I saw everything as he always had. I was behind the times. I was useless. I was insignificant. Though I was beautiful, I felt so very ugly. I was ugliness in the flesh. I was nonexistent.

Our silence was a conversation that screamed awkwardness. It seemed to stretch for miles. I had no voice. I had no thoughts. I just stood, my back to him, staring straight ahead of me at the oak door. He was waiting for me to say something. To acknowledge him.

_Why?_

I opened the door and closed it behind me without turning to look at him.

I was denying myself of him. Denying him of me. I refused to let him see me. I was ashamed. I was betrayed. I was empty. Everything I had been taught was meaningless now. It no longer applied to me. Was I even real anymore?

He had known what I was. He never told me. Never hinted, never said a word.

He had _known_.

--x-†-x--

It took me ages to fall asleep.

I could have gotten up from the bed; I could have left my room. But I refused, this stagnation was my sanctuary. Time was moving; I felt the day slip by. I sensed the morning disappear, the afternoon dissolve into darkness, even though the thick black curtains prevented even the smallest shaft of light from penetrating the pitch black room.

All day, my thoughts raced, flitting through my mind like shadows. So fast, I wasn't even aware of my thoughts anymore. It was just me on a bed, in a room, in a castle. The shadows lurking in the back of my mind reached out, engulfed my thoughts, and threw me into a fitful sleep that I woke from only to fall back into. All the while during this madness, this fever of desolation, one thought was clear.

Perhaps it was this thought that pained me, that disturbed me, that caused me such despair and anguish that I was reduced to a shell of flickering thoughts and reels of distorted images;

The demon was going to do what he wished with Kharl.

He was going to _destroy him. _

The human part of me wanted to run screaming to Kharl, to hold him in my arms. To know he was real and he was safe. Still the boy with the smile of an angel, still the boy whom I knew. And still…still _Kharl_.

The newly awakened demon in me was indifferent. I could do nothing. It was pointless. Kharl was sixteen. He was old enough to know what he wanted. To know what he was getting himself into. If I was going to continue playing the mother role with him, things were going to be worse. He was sixteen. Three years older than me. He was no child. He didn't need me to hold him and kiss his wounds. He was sixteen. Suddenly it seemed like centuries ago when I had first met him, when I had saved him. When I took him home. When I let him go. When he wove in and out of my life in all the following years. The forest, that was so long ago.

Did it really happen? Was I truly alive and existent?

Was I just a dream conjured up by some slumbering being?

What was the truth?

He was no angel. He was not a perfect being come down to bless me and to protect me. Angels couldn't possibly exist after this. Where were they now? Were they watching me now, lying in bed, staring at the ceiling? Were they laughing? Was I cursed? Perhaps they didn't involve themselves with demons; Kharl was one. I was half.

I blinked and felt steely resignation form in my mind. It hardened. I was shielded from petty human thoughts now. I didn't need that pathetic side of me to interfere with my cool, cold demon judgment. I no longer needed my old self. The icy cool consciousness was a relief from my muddled, vague mortal mind. I had only one body. Now that I was aware of my true being, there was only one side able to exist in me. There was no room for a second. My thoughts were distant, almost cold. I could understand my own thoughts now that I was no longer listening to the jumble of mixed emotions my human mind had produced.

The youkai was going to completely destroy Kharl. He was going to smash him into bits and pieces like the many mirrors I had demolished in that room. He was going to render Kharl unrecognizable. And then he would build him up again, build him into a true demon. He would make him a weapon.

**And I was not going to be there to watch.**

--x-†-x--

Two entire days passed, and I never left my room, neither eating nor sleeping.

I was plotting.

And when I finished plotting, I was revising.

And after revising, I threw away all old moral values, all ethics from my past.

And I was new.

I had nothing else that I held dear to me, nothing at all because it had all been taken from me. And because of that, I had nothing left to lose.

It was all gone anyway.

Kharl had come, every night to my door, but never knocked, or entered. He merely stood there, behind the door. Was he waiting for me to open it? If he was, I did not. I sat on my bed on the first day and stared at the door as, no doubt, Kharl was doing on the other side. The next two days I ignored him, lost in my thoughts. The only way I knew he was there was because he made himself apparent, upping his ki just slightly so I could sense him. He was letting me know he was there.

After an hour or two, I would hear his footsteps going back up the hallway and fading as he neared his room. I sat amused on my bed, reddish eyes glowing in the dark.

Finally, when I was ready I emerged from my room like a newborn chick from an egg. Blinking away the sunlight streaming through the skylights and windows on the wall, I moved forward into a world that was now alien to me.  
Things that I considered banal and ordinary now were interesting and eye-catching. Scents from things that I had never even imagined would smell had their own unique olfactory details. The world was suddenly intensely beautiful and intensely repulsive all at once.

And this was just a hallway. I wondered how overwhelmed I'd be once outside. But there was no other way. I had to embrace my newfound senses and it was now or never.

I was calm as neared the study door, which was left slightly ajar. I had no trouble hearing the voices that came from the room.

"-therefore if you mix these, they equal the property of the object you are manipulating. It requires a blood sacrifice, however. It need not be your own; it can be that of an animal or another demon. I advise against using human blood. It is tainted and often fatal to the finished product." There was a slight sneer in the master's voice as he said this. I had stopped, paused just behind the door. "Using purer blood, such as faerie blood, is much wiser, as not only does it give you a good result, but advances the magical properties of the creation. Thus, if you are in the mind to create a stronger demon than others are, use faerie blood. Do you understand, boy?"

"Yes, Master." Came Kharl's voice from within the room. Goosebumps erupted down my arms and I felt a slight chill down my spine. Kharl's voice was drone-like, yet entirely amazed, entranced by the words his master spoke. "But wouldn't it be better if you used dragon blood? Imagine a demon with dragon blood running through its veins. It would be very powerful, and at the same time be immune to dragon blood that is fatal to demons."

"Perhaps. But as you very well know, dragons are extremely hard to find now, seeing as they are all in Dusis, mainly Draqueen, residing with the dragon _lord_. As it has not been experimented with yet, I do not advise you go looking for a dragon just yet." It was a cold attempt at humor.

_Dusis._

_Draqueen._

These words felt meaningful…But I had never heard them. They were indeed places, if I had understood correctly. They were the first I had heard, other than Arinas.

I would go there.

A sudden loud 'caw' came from over my head. The two ragged looking birds sat perched on a rafter, staring at me with their beady red eyes. Right away, I understood it had been a warning. The master, who had been talking a few moments ago, stopped suddenly. I heard Kharl's quiet intake of breath. There was a few moments' silence, then light footsteps on the stone floor. The door swung open, and Kharl's master stood tall before me, as foreboding as ever. His ebony eyes stared into mine. This time, I would not look away. I stared back, as emotionless and boldly as he. The seconds ticked by and he seemed to become less fearsome in my eyes as I looked on. Indeed, he was not as tall as I thought, and his beautiful black eyes were actually a dark, dull gray, and when I once found them deep, were actually just empty. Vacant.

Then, with a taunt smile (or was it a leer?) he opened the door wider and gestured me into the room. The first thing I saw upon entering was Kharl. Paler than usual, sitting at a table littered with parchment, inks, quills and piled high with books.

He stared back at me, his expression mirroring my own. Apprehensive and shocked.

It was like seeing Kharl for the very first time. In a demon's eyes, Kharl's hair was much whiter. The lilac tinge was only apparent if you looked hard. His skin was transuculent, just like ivory, but did not have the shade of gray, unhealthiness that most sickly pale people do. Indeed, he looked healthier than usual, well fed, and I think he must have brushed his hair because there were fewer rampant strands and tufts of hair shooting everywhere on his head.

Then his eyes locked with mine and I nearly stumbled back. My human eyes had only seen the one shade of purple when looking into Kharl's eyes, but now I realized how blind I had been. His eyes were striking shades of violent violet; the color deepened reaching his irises, tinged with small flecks of lavender, the color in his hair. His gaze was so intensely bright I almost had to look away.

His master, standing besides me, said quietly, "Now you see how precious he is. I'm sure you've heard of the expression 'The eyes are the window to one's soul.'"

His words from before haunted my mind.

"_And his eyes, no human iris could bear such a wonderful pigment…" _

My eyes widened, my eyes still caught on Kharl's. I had been in the dark my whole entire life. I knew it was pointless, but cold frustration welled within me and my hands clenched involuntarily. _Human emotions…_

The icy sheet of calm fell over me softly, gently. The anger evaporated within seconds of its appearance and my hands went loose, leaving only crescent-shaped marks in my palm.

Effortlessly, I looked away from Kharl, turned on my heels quietly, and swept from the room, closing the door behind me with a barely audible 'click'.

_Such strange mood swings, _I commented mentally. But there was no strife or pain in these thoughts. Clear as crystal and cold as ice.

There was a door leading outside, its glass panes let the brilliant sunshine seep through into the empty room. On a whim, I opened the door and stepped outside into the warm rays of sunshine that looked so enticing from within the castle.

I breathed in deeply. I smelled the wonderfully natural smell of trees, grass, and dirt. I smelled the eloquent fragrance of the wildflowers in the field in front of me. And then, cocking my head, I smelled salt and water. Closing my eyes, I took the smell in.  
It was calming. What did this scent belong to?

Running in my new, quick strides, I reached where I wanted to be three times faster than I would have normally.

I was standing about a league from the castle, in the meadow of wild flowers. Looking down, I realized I was on a cliff. The castle, the forest..everything was on the…

The Sea.

Though it was a long way down, I could see the blue sea crashing against the base of the cliff. Raising my gaze gradually, The long plain of blue water stretched out as far as the eye could see. It met the horizon and changed into the sky, a much lighter blue and with a few clouds meandering aimlessly across the infinite stretch of royal blue. The sun shone upon the sea and it's gentle ripple of waves, making it look like each new curve of water held many amounts of diamonds and jewels.  
It was spectacular, so spectacular, I forgot everything for one brief moment.

I forgot to breathe, I forgot my worries, I forgot Kharl.

I closed my eyes, burning the image in my brain to keep it forever, so I could recall it when I wished.

Raising my head to the heavens, eyes still closed, I cherished the quiet. Only the faint sound of the sea crashing against the rocks below could be heard. The wind picked up suddenly and whipped my hair around me.

In that moment, with closed eyes, I knew paradise.

A cry broke the blissful silence.

"DON'T JUMP!"

My eyes snapped open and I wheeled around to see Kharl running towards me like a blur of silver, his loose white shirt and pants billowing in the wind that was now picking up as he raced towards me.

And suddenly he was there, holding my wrist in a vice-like grip that I would not thought possible of Kharl. Belatedly I remembered his appearance belied his strength, as he was a demon.  
"Don't jump." He repeated again, but this time not shouting. His voice was calm, almost stern, his eyebrows furrowed in distress, his now lavender eyes wide with alarm. For a second my mind was blank, processing the last minute events.

This time it was the demon side of me that grew furious. Wrenching my wrist from his hold, I took a step back, only inches away from the ledge. A feral snarl alighted on my lips as I hissed, "Who do you think you are?"  
Kharl blinked, clearly taken aback. His mouth formed soundless words as he struggled to come up with an answer.  
"I…What…?" he stuttered. His lilac eyes were filled with hurt. This only infuriated the demon in me. The wind was now coming in short but hard gusts, and it lifted my hair around me, thrashing like snakes. I couldn't tell if it was the wind or my _ki, _firing up in my anger, but it no doubt added to my livid comportment.

"Do you really think I'd do something as cowardly as kill myself? Like a dog with its tail between its legs, I'd toss myself over some cliff?! You foul, treacherous b-", But before I could start screaming, the earth beneath me shifted and I felt it give away, falling into the sea and rocks below. I had been so distracted that I didn't have enough time to jump forward and regain my footing, as I could have done in normal circumstances.  
For a second, I hung there, in in midair, my arms outstretched as if to catch the air to steady myself. I saw Kharl, stunned, hand frozen halfway in the air.

My life suddenly flickered through my eyes and time seemed to slow almost to a stop.

_He still wasn't looking at me but I saw a very small, shy smile cross his face for a moment or two. It seemed very out of place in the prison, but it also seemed to brighten everything shortly-_

_"Maybe..." I said wistfully. A blue butterfly fluttered past-_

"_Kharl!"_

_"Thank you..." he said quietly-_

_"Yes, tonight we kill that demon." another said-_

_"Kharl!" I called "Kharl!" There was no answer-_

_"It's the pretty little gallows maid." He stepped forward and grabbed-_

_"I'll protect you." he said and we began to run-_

"_You won't take me back there, will you?"-_

"_-I hate the gallows-"-_

_"Stop being stubborn." He said and-_

"_Kharl!"_

_As his eyelids parted, to reveal them a vibrant violet. I was sucked in, swimming, No, drowning in them. I hadn't notice his eyes before but they seemed so bright in the darkness of his cell-_

_And the last thing I saw was Kharl, as he whipped around and darted for my hand, but missed-_

"_We know. Our kind does."-_

"_Listen, I want you to take your shirt off."-_

"_Reina!" I heard Kharl yell, and then I didn't hear anything else at all-_

"_Kharl…What's wrong, why are you looking- No, why is there blood on you?-_

"_Kharl!"_

_I can't die like this! Where's Kharl? Where…_

"_Reina!" _

"_How did you kill it?" He asked curiously-_

"_Yuck Kharl, don't do that. It's dead."-_

"_Birds." I finally said-._

"_**What's wrong? That castle, who does it belong to? Kharl?" **_

"_Where is the boy I was with?" I asked._

_And Kharl…Kharl could help me if he wanted to. Would he come? And if there really was an end to this forest what would we do once we got there?-_

"_**How long have I been asleep?" **_

"_Kharl!"-_

"_Reina!" He was shaking me-_

"_KHARL!" I screamed_

_No, not Kharl. Never Kharl.-_

"_Kharl has told me all about you. Reina." he whispered-_

"…_What is Kharl to you?" _

"_Kharl is most…Interesting…"_

"_What of Kharl? He owes you nothing. He can leave if he wishes…right?"-_

"_I could take him if I wanted."-_

"_Can…can I talk to Kharl?"-_

"_Then say yes." Kharl said simply-_

"_Reina."_

_Those curséd eyes-_

"_Reina." He said my name again_

_Kharl didn't see us come in, he had-_

"_Kharl, listen to me."_

"_Kharl!"-_

"_KHARL!"_

"_Kharl? Is that"-_

_**Demons don't smile like that.**_

"KHARL!" I let out a scream of absolute fear. It pierced the air like a razor-edged knife and seemed to snap Kharl into action. His eyes changed from suprised horror to panic as he lunged towards me while I toppled backwards into the empty air.

I lashed out with my arms towards him reflexively just as I began my freefall. He was too late, it was happening too fast. His stark white face was the last thing I saw before the wall of solid rock took up all my vision. Gravity pulled me down and my body flipped so that I was facing the sea below me, the rocky crags growing ever closer. I plummeted like a rock.The wind was whistling off me so loudly all I could hear was my own heartbeat in my ears. My mind was a blank mess.

Only one thought was charging through my mind;

_Will it really end like this, Kharl?_

I hoped my angel would look like Kharl when he came to take me away. And as I was readying myself for death, the rocks below nearing me with incredible speed, my wish was granted.

A winged angel flew downwards, parallel to me, his iridescent snow-white wings shimmering in the rays of light. With grace and apparent ease, he grabbed me out of the air and angled upwards, his wings making soft "whooshing" noises as he pumped them to fly up. In his arms and pressed against his chest, I felt safe and warm, all the fear I had felt was gone. He smelled like sunshine. Sudden contentment stole over me.

If this was what it was like to die, I didn't mind going at all.

I closed my eyes and died.

**øØ†Øø**

**Author's Notes: **'

Oh noes! So Reina's dead? What do you think?

How will this story go on? In Kharl's POV? The guesses are infinite! XD

Thanks to Sarehptar and her newest update on "Cloaks" I got motivated to finished up this chapter. GO READ HER STUFF! If you're a fan of KH2 then she's got a fic for you too! (title: The Violet Room)

R&R, fanks!


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